Apple accuses its former employees of industrial espionage via AirDrop and Time Machine

Apple has filed a complaint against Rivos, a competing start-up that the firm accuses of stealing confidential data by hiring its former employees. According to the Apple brand, Rivos would ask the engineers in question to send them information about its M1 chip, information they would obtain from AirDrop transfers and Time Machine backups.

Between Apple and the leaks, it’s never been a great love affair. The voltage peak was probably reached shortly before the release of the iPhone, which was particularly prone to the phenomenon. Apple then decided to crack down by forcing its employees to wear cameras or by summoning leakers to denounce their sources. Also, the company is now on the alert regarding the resale of confidential information.

This surely explains the complaint filed by the latter against Rivos, a competing start-up that wants to develop its own chip. To do this, Rivos would particularly target former Apple employees during its hiring process. And this for a simple reason: according to Apple, this would be a way for the start-up to obtain manufacturing secrets concerning the M1 chip.

An Apple competitor would use former employees to recover confidential information

Apple claims that its former engineers would recover these manufacturing secrets by various means in the hope of being hired by Rivos. According to the manufacturer, the employees would store this information in secret on USB keys, while others would use AirDrop to recover data on the collaborative applications of the company.

On the same subject — iPhone 14 with holey screen, MacBook Air with M2 chip… a leak confirms the future products of Apple

Another technique noted by Apple: employees would make Time Machine backups to obtain a complete copy of their Apple device, which they would then transfer to a storage device. “Others have saved large presentations on existing, yet to be released Apple SoCs. […] on their personal clouds »finally specifies Apple.

For now, two ex-employees are cited in the complaint filed by the Cupertino company. The latter have both been hired by Rivos since leaving Apple.

Source: Apple