Three Silicon Valley's engineers charged with exporting Google trade secrets to Iran

A federal jury has charged three engineers from Silicon Valley with stealing trade secrets from Google and other tech companies, and allegedly transferring sensitive information to Iran, according to prosecutors on Thursday.

Samaneh Ghandali, age 41, her sister Soroor Ghandali, 32, and Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40 — all living in San Jose — were taken into custody and appeared before a federal court the same day.

The defendants have been identified as nationals of Iran. Soroor was in the US on a student visa. 

Samaneh became a US citizen, while Khosravi, her spouse, is a legal permanent resident. Prosecutors mentioned that Khosravi has served in the Iranian military.

The group is charged with conspiring in the theft of trade secrets, actual and attempted theft of trade secrets, and obstructing justice, as stated by the office of the US attorney for Northern California.

Prosecutors claim that the defendants misused their roles at top tech companies developing mobile processors to procure hundreds of concealed files, including details on processor security and cryptography.

Samaneh and Soroor were employed at Google before moving to another firm referred to as Company 3. 

Khosravi was employed at another company known as Company 2, which designs system-on-chip (SoC) platforms such as the Snapdragon series used in smartphones and other devices.

Google indicated to CNBC that they identified the alleged theft through standard monitoring procedures and then contacted law enforcement.

"We have improved protections to secure our confidential data and promptly notified law enforcement upon discovering the matter," said spokesperson José Castañeda.

The company also emphasised measures to protect its trade secrets, such as limiting employee access to sensitive data, enforcing two-factor authentication for Google work accounts, and tracking file transfers to external platforms like Telegram.

Authorities claim the individuals diverted stolen files through an external communication platform to channels identified by their first names, before transferring the information to personal and each other's work devices, and ultimately to Iran.