According to leaked information brought by Bloomberg, Apple got 12 people arrested for leaking its confidential information related to future software plans.
The company published its memo in a straight forward and rather brutally phrased language stating that it caught 29 leakers last year and got 12 of them arrested. However, all 29 of them were not the employees of Apple. Of course, they included the Apple employees but they also included contractors and supply chain partners.
The memo straight forwardly states, “Leakers do not simply lose their jobs at Apple. In some cases, they face jail time and massive fines for network intrusion and theft of trade secrets, both classified as federal crimes.”
The main motive of the memo is to warn the employees the dire consequences of leaking information. It suggests that the employees and others working for Apple may often come across reports and other media outlets trying to befriend them only to get some information from them. But leak will do no good to them. Surely, it will be beneficial for the media as they will get to earn great web traffic, the employees are the ones who will suffer as they could lose their jobs and come across other consequences. “While it may seem flattering to be approached, it’s important to remember that you’re getting played,” the memo further stated along with the warning that once an employee loses the job for being a leaker, finding another employment gets much harder.
Recently, an employee was terminated for leaking details of a crucial internal meeting in which Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Apple for Engineering, informed about the iOS software feature related delay. In a similar leak attempt last year another employee was fired. This employee had given out iPhone X, iPad Pro and AirPods related details to 9to5Mac.
