Google Tensor Chip IP Theft Might Land Three People In Prison For A 20-Year Stint As The Iranian Angle Gains Prominence

Corporate espionage is a tricky affair at the best of times. And, when your target vector involves a behemoth like Google and its prized Tensor chip, the stakes become nosebleed-high, as three Silicon Valley engineers are now finding out to their detriment.

Two sisters and one of their husbands now stand accused of stealing trade secrets related to Google's Tensor chip

As per a press release issued by the United States Attorney's Office, Northern District of California, three Silicon Valley engineers - Samaneh Ghandali, Mohammadjavad Khosravi, and Soroor Ghandali - have now been indicted "on charges of conspiring to commit trade secret theft from Google and other leading technology companies, theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice."

All three individuals were arrested on Thursday and appeared before the federal district court in San Jose. Do note that Samaneh Ghandali and Soroor Ghandali are sisters who previously worked at Google - the former a hardware engineer and the latter an intern - before going on to work at another company, identified in court documents only as Company 3. Mohammadjavad Khosravi is Samaneh Ghandali's husband, who worked at Company 2, and had applied to Google a number of times but was rejected each time.

As per the indictment, the defendants obtained and "then exfiltrated confidential and sensitive documents, including trade secrets related to processor security and cryptography and other technologies, from Google and other technology companies to unauthorized third-party and personal locations, including to work devices associated with each other’s employers, and to Iran."

Specifically, the two sisters stand accused of transferring hundreds of files, including Google trade secrets, to accounts at a third-party communications platform. The indictment notes that "these Google trade secrets were later copied to various personal devices and Khosravi’s Company 2 work device, as well as Soroor Ghandali’s Company 3 work device."

What's more, the defendants tried to hide their tracks by submitting false affidavits to the companies whose trade secrets were compromised and attempting to destroy exfiltrated content and its digital footprints. As per the indictment, the defendants manually photographed "screens containing the documents’ contents instead of exfiltrating complete documents."

The indictment adds:

"On the night before Samaneh Ghandali and Khosravi traveled to Iran in December 2023, Samaneh Ghandali allegedly manually captured with her mobile phone approximately 24 photographs of Khosravi’s work computer screen containing Company 2 trade secret information.  While in Iran, a personal device associated with Samaneh Ghandali accessed these photographs, and Khosravi accessed other Company 2 trade secret information."

While we do not know much else at this stage, the reference to Google Tensor chip's "processor security and cryptography" might also relate to the Titan M2 security coprocessor that provides hardware-level protection for user data, including encryption keys and biometric information, and featured in the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro alongside the Tensor G3 chip in October 2023. Of course, the Tensor G3 also sported a built-in Tensor security core, which is a specialized CPU-based subsystem integrated directly into the SoC to run sensitive controls in an isolated environment. Do note that the upcoming Google Tensor G6 is now expected to debut with the all-new Titan M3 security coprocessor.

Given the defendants' connection to Iran and their interest in Google Tensor's cryptography protocols, we can't rule out the possibility that they were assets working for the Iranian intelligence or the IRGC. Either way, we should know more as the case proceeds.

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