Apple is suing a former employee for allegedly leaking confidential information to journalists and employees of other companies, including unknown details about the company's Journal app and the development of its VisionOS headset. The lawsuit was filed 10 days ago in California state court (24CV433319pdf), Andrew Aude says regulatory compliance strategies, number of employees, and other product hardware characteristics were also leaked.
As previously reported, mcroomersThe company said that in at least one message, Ord claimed to have leaked the information „to 'kill' the product or feature he took issue with.“
Apple cited a number of communications in its lawsuit.
Between June and September 2023 alone, Ord used an encrypted messaging app to communicate with a Wall Street Journal journalist (whom Ord codenamed „Homeboy“). connected more than 1,400 times. Ord also read out the final feature list for an unannounced Apple product, „Homeboy,'' over the phone. Ord sent another journalist to the following location: information I sent over 10,000 text messages and traveled all over the continent to meet her.
„The following screenshots of an encrypted message exchange between Mr. Ord and a WSJ journalist on the Signal app are included in the complaint,“ Apple said. Ord often took screenshots of his communications on his Apple-issued work iPhone and saved them for posterity. ”
Apple accuses Ord of leaking a list of final features for Apple's Journal app during a call to the same reporter in April 2023.story about Unreleased app features appeared in the same month wall street journal.
Ord joined Apple in 2016 as an iOS engineer focused on optimizing battery performance. Apple's lawyers wrote that because of the nature of his role, Ord had access to „information about dozens of Apple's most sensitive products.“
The company said the breach was not discovered until late 2023. When Apple representatives first met with Ord in November 2023, Ord reportedly denied any involvement in the breach and lied about owning an Apple-issued iPhone. There is. He then faked wanting to go to the bathroom and „during his break, he removed his iPhone from his pocket and permanently deleted large amounts of evidence from the device, including the Signal app,“ the complaint alleges.
Then, at a second meeting on Dec. 12, the complaint states: Ord admitted to leaking information to at least two journalists about Apple's strategy regarding regulatory compliance, unreleased products, development policies, and hardware characteristics of certain released products. ” He was fired three days later. Apple's filings say that in addition to a jury trial, damages, and „restitution and/or forfeiture“ of bonuses and stock options, the company „discloses Apple's confidential and proprietary information to third parties without written consent.“ It is seeking an order directing Mr. Ord not to do so. ”