Apple claims OpenAI staff exploited network vulnerability to siphon trade secrets

Apple filed a lawsuit alleging that former employee Chang Liu exploited a network vulnerability to steal trade secrets and share them with OpenAI, where he now works. The suit also names former Apple VP Tang Yew Tan, who allegedly encouraged Apple staff to bring confidential parts to OpenAI interviews. Apple claims OpenAI's hardware business is built on stolen intellectual property.

A former Apple employee is alleged to have used their access to the tech giant’s network and downloaded “dozens” of top secret hardware files, which they supplied to OpenAI. According to a lawsuit https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/apple-OpenAI-complaint.pdf filed on July 10, iPhone engineer Chang Liu departed Apple to join OpenAI’s fledgling hardware division. The suit alleges Liu accessed confidential Apple files including information on upcoming, unreleased projects, engineering presentations, and technical specifications. Liu allegedly kept an Apple-issued laptop that was still authenticated to the tech giant’s network, with the complaint contending he told former colleague Yu-Ting “Alyssa” Peng: “LOL, I found out I can access the network storage , so funny.” The lawsuit also claims Liu exploited a previously unknown authentication bug to access Apple’s shared network folders. Among the trove of documents allegedly accessed by Liu were a compilation of technical files with more than one thousand pages labeled as confidential. Liu is also alleged to have used Peng’s work computer while she was still employed at Apple and later tried to coach her to on how to access and copy files from Apple workstations “to avoid trouble with the security team.” OpenAI’s efforts to create its own hardware lines saw it enlist former Apple design chief Jony Ive last May https://openai.com/sam-and-jony/ . A few months later, the ChatGPT maker acquired Ive’s design startup, io Products, which also is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. Apple has attacked those efforts, with its lawsuit claiming such misconduct is “normalized and exemplified by leadership.” Liu isn’t the only former Apple employee alleged to have misappropriated trade secrets, with the lawsuit also naming Tang Yew Tan as a defendant. Tan served at Apple for over two decades, most recently as VP for product design for iPhone and the Apple Watch, before recently jumping ship to become OpenAI’s chief hardware officer. According to the lawsuit, Tan's alleged to have told staff still working for Apple to bring “actual parts” to interviews with OpenAI for “show and tell” sessions. “OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets,” the iPhone maker wrote in its complaint. Apple said its trade secrets and confidential company information are stored in its secure network file repository, which is a third-party hosted cloud system. Access at Apple is provisioned through the tech giant’s Access Manager system under Apple’s terms of use that limit access to only “for work purposes,” and that access to said system is disabled upon an employee’s departure. The lawsuit alleges employees departing for OpenAI have “taken actions to evade security measures,” including failing to provide two weeks’ notice and ignoring outreach by security personnel to schedule exit processes and security reviews – all of which Apple said, “may help to conceal the misuse and misappropriation of confidential information.” Apple’s lawsuit comes as device access is a security concern of growing importance, with trade secret misappropriation joining other fears like shadow AI https://www.sdxcentral.com/analysis/keeping-shadow-ai-from-the-enterprise-end-zone/ . Palo Alto Networks https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/palo-alto-networks-opens-the-vault-to-unmanaged-devices-with-secure-agentless-access-launch/ , Cloudflare https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/cloudflare-targets-ai-security-gaps-with-mesh-launch-wiz-integration/ , and Cato Networks https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/cato-networks-launches-enterprise-browser-to-tackle-shadow-ai-threats/ are among the vendors to have launched device access services of late to meet enterprise demand for uniform enforcement without policy gaps or fragmented security workflows.