Nadat Apple’s CEO Tim Cook er een paar jaar in slaagde om behoorlijk veel informatie over nieuwe projecten ‘binnenboord’ te houden zien we de afgelopen jaren vaker steeds eerder cruciale informatie naar buiten komen, waarvan dat overduidelijk niet de bedoeling was.

Eén van de bronnen van een aantal van de allergrootste  lekken was waarschijnlijk Simon Lancaster, die meer dan tien jaar bij Apple werkte in verschillende leidinggevende rollen. Na zijn vertrek bleek dat hij die positie had misbruikt, en al jarenlang een vast contact voedde met allerlei geheime informatie van Apple, en bij zijn vertrek ook nog een behoorlijk aantal documenten en andere bewijsstukken meenam.



Dit alles is te lezen in de aanklacht van de rechtszaak Apple v. Simon Lancaster (PDF, 225 KB).

Eén van de projecten waarover hij veel informatie lekte wordt door Apple in de processtukken aangeduid als Project X, mogelijk is dat het project van Apple’s bril/headset voor Virtual en Augmented Reality.

Hieronder een aantal citaten uit die eerder genoemde processtukken.

Despite over a decade of employment at Apple, Lancaster abused his position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate Apple’s sensitive trade secret information in an effort to obtain personal benefits. He used his seniority to gain access to internal meetings and documents outside the scope of his job’s responsibilities containing Apple’s trade secrets, and he provided these trade secrets to his outside media correspondent (“Correspondent”). The Correspondent then published the stolen trade secrets in articles, citing a “source” at Apple. On multiple occasions, Lancaster proposed that the Correspondent give benefits to Lancaster in exchange for Apple’s trade secrets. For example, Lancaster proposed that the Correspondent provide favorable coverage of a startup company in which Lancaster was an investor as a quid pro quo. Lancaster even recruited the Correspondent to serve as his personal investigator. In one instance, Lancaster requested that the Correspondent explore a rumor that could prove harmful to a company in which Lancaster had invested.

On October 10, 2019, the Correspondent requested additional confidential information from Lancaster related to another unannounced Apple project referred to herein as “Project X.”

On October 15, 2019, Lancaster submitted his resignation to Apple, and he began off-boarding from his roles within the company.

On October 16, 2019, the Correspondent asked Lancaster “can you grab me those docs before you leave”? Lancaster responded “which ones,” and the Correspondent then identified specific Apple confidential documents that they wanted Lancaster to misappropriate.

Later that month, Lancaster informed the Correspondent that he intended to attend a meeting regarding Project X.

Prior to the time Lancaster attended the Project X meeting, he was instructed by Apple that he should not attend the meeting, especially given his announced departure. Additional Apple personnel told Lancaster during the meeting that he should not be present. Lancaster eventually left the meeting, but he learned substantial SAI regarding Project X before leaving. Lancaster wrote to one of his managers who had instructed him that he should not be in the meeting that “I had already been exposed to all the hardware they showed while I was in the [meeting]. Was just hoping to see a demo.” On information and belief, this communication by Lancaster was intended to disguise his efforts to misappropriate Apple trade secrets regarding Project X.

On information and belief, Lancaster transmitted the trade secret SAI gleaned from this meeting to the Correspondent on the same day the meeting occurred.

November 1, 2019 was Lancaster’s final day of employment at Apple and his credentials to log into the secure Apple corporate network were set to expire at midnight. But at 10:24 p.m. that same day, Lancaster used his credentials to log onto Apple’s secure corporate network from a location outside Apple facilities. On information and belief, Lancaster used this access to download additional SAI before his login credentials expired. In particular, Lancaster downloaded confidential information that would assist his new employer.

Mere days after Lancaster’s final day at Apple, Lancaster had a call with the Correspondent and later congratulated the Correspondent about the success of an article that disclosed SAI that Lancaster had misappropriated in his final weeks of employment at Apple.