Intel, the leading computer chip maker, has filed a lawsuit seeking at least $250,000 in damages from a former software engineer, Jinfeng Luo, who is accused of stealing a huge amount of confidential company data before disappearing.
This incident comes as Intel faces massive job cuts. The company, as we know it, has laid off around 35,500 employees over the last couple of years as it tries to fix its money troubles.
Luo, who had worked at Intel since 2014, was notified on July 7, 2024, that his job was ending at the end of that month. According to court filings reported by media outlets, just days before his last day, Luo allegedly copied about 18,000 files onto a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device. A NAS is basically a special hard drive connected to a network, making it possible to store and share data.
These files were not just any documents; some were even marked as “Intel Top Secret,” which means they contained the company’s most sensitive information. However, while Luo was notified of his termination amid these layoffs, the lawsuit itself does not state the specific reason why his job was ended.
Further probing revealed that Luo first tried to copy the files to an external drive a week before his departure, but Intel’s security systems blocked that attempt. He reportedly succeeded in the transfer a few days later, before spending the rest of his time downloading as much information as he could.
Intel detected the unusual transfers and has since spent over three months trying to contact Luo through phone calls, emails, and even letters. However, with the former employee still untraceable and not responding to any of the claims, Intel was forced to file the lawsuit in a Washington federal court.
The company is seeking the return of its property and is also demanding that the court order Luo to hand over his personal electronic devices for inspection. The case is officially titled Intel Corporation v. Luo, with Case Number 2:2025cv02159.
It is worth noting that this is not Intel’s first clash with a former employee stealing data. In a recent, separate case, another former engineer named Varun Gupta was sentenced to two years of probation and had to pay a $34,000 fine for taking proprietary information. That data was later used while he worked for Microsoft, which, the court found, actually gave the rival company an advantage in negotiations with Intel.
Intel’s lawsuit against Luo seeks the return of all the confidential data and the large sum of money for damages, as the company fights to protect its business secrets.
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