Intel is suing an ex-employee of 11 years alleging the engineer downloaded nearly 18,000 files, many of which being top secret or confidential

(Image credit: Intel)

In June this year, Intel laid off over 100 of its employees in California. Just a month later, 4000 more were announced, with people across California, Oregon, Texas, and Arizona all losing jobs. Now, one of those employees, a staff member for 11 years, has been accused of stealing almost 18,000 files on their way.

This is all according to a court filing on behalf of Intel (via Oregon Live). After being notified on July 7, then leaving the company on July 31, the employee (Mr Jinfeng Luo) reportedly connected a NAS (network attached storage) to take 18,000 files from their Intel account and laptop, many of which Intel claims "were Intel Top Secret or contained Intel Confidential Information."

With this lawsuit, Intel is aiming for restitution of at least $250,000. This figure can go up at trial depending on what has been done with the reported data, and includes the payment of Intel's attorney fees.

The lawsuit also argues for Luo to account for the data, and is pushing for an order directing Luo "to temporarily surrender his personal devices to Intel for the purpose of inspection and removal of any Intel files that may remain."

This is an active lawsuit, and is subject to any changes made in the discovery process. Luo has been officially summoned via the United States District Court and must respond within 21 days of the October 31 filing.

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James is a more recent PC gaming convert, often admiring graphics cards, cases, and motherboards from afar. It was not until 2019, after just finishing a degree in law and media, that they decided to throw out the last few years of education, build their PC, and start writing about gaming instead. In that time, he has covered the latest doodads, contraptions, and gismos, and loved every second of it. Hey, it’s better than writing case briefs.

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