this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023

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Nvidia sued after senior employee accidentally showed off confidential files taken from previous employer during a video meeting (fortune.com)

submitted 1 year ago by douglasg14b@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Seems an engineer stole source code, docs, presentations...etc related to car technology.

all 27 comments

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[–] just_change_it@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've seen the same thing first hand with people in senior leadership roles at big companies.

Not a lot of upsides to whistleblow this stuff.

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's just the same "How to succeed" PowerPoint preseo floating around after hundreds of logo changes. Rumours say a temp made it back in 2007 and that's why it's still 4:3.

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Does it have ricey WordArt?

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Spins onto screen and everything. Kid really knew their shit.

[+] clayh@lemmy.ml -15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Wow really just gonna bust out the bigoted language over a PowerPoint?

E: y’all love defending casual bigotry! Wowzer

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Dunno what you're on about, but people need just a glimpse at your comment history for such examples. Wowzer.

[+] clayh@lemmy.ml -9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The only wowzer here is everyone being okay with bigotry.

WOWZER

[–] GratefullyGodless@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

The real wowzer is the fact that you automatically leapt to thinking someone is racist, instead of just assuming that they made a spelling mistake, or got autocorrected. They probably meant "dicey", but no, we'll just call them racist instead.

[–] Halosheep@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think they definitely meant ricey, which is absolutely a way to describe jpeg compression artifacting from really old images/files that have been moved around for far too long.

Ricey: of or resembling rice

[–] clayh@lemmy.ml -2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Keep telling yourself it’s totally not bigoted 🤡

Wowweezeeeeerrrrrrrr

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 12 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Nvidia is in hot water after one of its software engineers accidentally let a rival company—and his former employer—in on a secret: that he stole its top-secret research and took it to the trillion-dollar tech giant.

During a video call with automotive tech firm Valeo last year, the engineer, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, made a blunder when he shared his screen and showed his ex-colleagues some source code that they immediately recognized as their own.

“[Moniruzzaman] realized that his knowledge of, and exposure and access to, Valeo proprietary software, technologies, and development techniques would make him exceedingly valuable to Nvidia,” the firm said in the lawsuit.

He then stole tens of thousands of files and 6 gigabytes of source code, after which, [he] attempted to cover his tracks by subsequently removing his personal account from authorized access.”

Upon recognizing the source code and file names that were displayed on Moniruzzaman’s screen during the call, Valeo employees took a screenshot and passed it back to their employer.

Moniruzzaman, who is based in Germany, was convicted of unlawful acquisition, use, and disclosure of Valeo’s trade secrets by German authorities in September this year, according to the lawsuit.

The original article contains 1,040 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[+] TWeaK@lemm.ee -17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There's a lot of blind accusations there, Valeo claims NVidia used their research but don't specify what research or even what product NVidia have used it in.

Edit: Another article explains it much better. NVidia and Valeo competed on an AI project, NVidia won the software part, then in a video call between the two to develop the project Moniruzzaman was caught with Valeo code.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 61 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not that blind.

“When he minimized the PowerPoint presentation he had been sharing, however, he revealed one of Valeo’s verbatim source code files open on his computer. So brazen was Mr. Moniruzzaman’s theft, the file path on his screen still read ‘ValeoDocs.’”

[–] FoundTheVegan@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Ooofh that's pretty damning. 😂

Thanks for copying that in, dang pay wall.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's damning for the guy, who has already been convicted, but not necessarily for NVidia. Valeo have provided no evidence of NVidia using their code, nor even mention of any specific NVidia product it might have been used in.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Valeo and Nvidia competed on a contract. Valeo won the hardware part, Nvidia the software part. The lawsuit is about Nvidia benefiting on this project.

Details from another place the same story, but from The Verge. https://lemmy.nz/post/3702572

[–] Dangdoggo@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Ah, there's the rub. Thanks I was having a hard time figuring this one out.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Direct link to the article: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/23/23973673/valeo-nvidia-autonomous-driving-software-ip-theft-lawsuit

TL;DR NVidia and Valeo competed for an AI contract, Valeo won the hardware side but NVidia won the software (surely that's backwards lol). The two companies had to work together on the project, it was during such a project call that Moniruzzaman was caught with old Valeo code.

So yeah, that's much more damning, and the Fortune article did a poor job with the story by not explaining that.

[–] ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's exactly the take-away I got from the whole thing. One idiot copy-pasted stuff and used it in front of the people he copied it from.

Valeo will have a hard time proving its use, without a third party doing some searching in a lot of source code. One person with access to all of both sides' code in order to compare them? that seems like a big ask for a fishing expedition.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

Well it looks like they probably did use it though. The one guy had the code on his NVidia work laptop, and NVidia won an AI software contract over Valeo. It was in a collaborative call with Valeo (who won the hardware portion of the contract) that the code was revealed. NVidia may well be ordered to hand over their code for examination, to prove that Valeo's code isn't present in there. If Valeo get the injunction, NVidia will have to cease using that code and rewrite it entirely.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

dang pay wall.

Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20231124133717/https://fortune.com/2023/11/24/nvidia-lawsuit-corporate-espionage-trade-secrets-valeo-zoom-call/

[–] FoundTheVegan@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

♥ 💕 ♥

[–] verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

Thank you

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

You're completely missing my point. I'm not saying he didn't take the files - he's already been convicted of that. I'm saying Valeo have not demonstrated in any way that NVidia used the material he stole in one of their products. They claim that in the lawsuit, but provide no basis for that claim.