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Comment by dmvinson | Hacker News Reader

  In 2014, GE’s corporate security learned that Mr. Zheng 
  had copied more than 19,000 files from a GE-owned 
  computer to an external storage device, according to 
  the FBI affidavit.
  
  In late 2017, GE discovered he had saved about 400 
  files on his desktop computer using encryption software 
  not used by the company.

I don't understand why GE would keep him employed after the first offense. Can someone who understands corporate bureaucracy explain this? Especially knowing that he was literally running a competing business in China while employed at GE.

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Sometimes you catch a spy, fire them, and have them arrested.

Sometimes you identify, feed them false information, and watch who they talk to...

Sometimes you screw up.

There can be good reasons for GE/FBI/CIA to let a spy keep their job.

For example, Line X and the Farewell Dossier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_Dossier

> In late 2017, GE discovered he had saved about 400 files on his desktop computer using encryption software not used by the company

Encrypting personal file on your laptop is probably an improper use of the company resources. But this might not be necessarily criminal. What if the guy had only encrypted his vacation pictures ?

However, you can not just go and say "Hey can you decrypt these files for us" because he will understand he got caught and can argue that he encrypted them but that was for additional safety, and it did not send or sold them.

So you want to caught him sending the data out of the company to be sure to indict/convict him. And that's what they did.

But this might not be necessarily criminal. What if the guy has only encrypted his vacation pictures ?

Fire-able offense as the laptop was company owned and such behavior sets all alarms. Once fired, they get to look at your history...

Let's admit that when dealing with IP worth tens of billions different procedures are in place, and the burden of proof for being fired /investigated is much, much lower than "beyond reasonable doubt" used to jail you.

I haven't read the Fine Article but that snippet you posted could be completely benign. I've copied "thousands of files from a company owned computer to an external storage device" on many occasions.

I was planning on working from home and my network at home would have taken hours to get all the files from source control over the corporate VPN, so I downloaded the entire source tree to a thumb drive.

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