The Engineer Who Disappeared With Intel’s Secrets
It reads like the start of a spy thriller: a long-time Intel engineer walks out the door with thousands of confidential files, vanishes, and leaves the company scrambling for answers.
That, according to The Mercury News, is the real-life story of Jinfeng Luo, a former Intel software engineer who is now accused of stealing nearly 18,000 internal documents, some labeled Top Secret, just days before his departure in mid-2024. Luo had worked at Intel since 2014 and was already serving notice when he allegedly made his move.
An initial attempt to copy the data reportedly failed, as it was blocked by Intel’s defenses. But days later, Luo managed to quietly transfer the data onto a personal network drive, slipping through before his exit. Intel’s security systems detected the breach soon after, sparking months of unanswered calls, emails, and formal letters.
Now the company is suing and asking for $250,000 in damages, along with safe return of its proprietary information. Meanwhile, Luo has gone completely off the radar with no statements, no response, no trace. The case echoes earlier incidents where departing employees were caught walking away with sensitive data, a risk that continues to haunt the tech industry. For Intel, it’s an embarrassing reminder that the biggest security threats sometimes wear company badges.
Ironically, the scandal arrives as Intel’s fortunes are beginning to brighten again. The chipmaker just posted its first meaningful revenue increase in a year, and its stock went up nearly 80% over three months, finally showing signs of life. But the missing engineer and his digital haul cast a long shadow, raising a question Silicon Valley never quite solves: How do you protect secrets from the people who helped build them?
