A former employee at Microsoft has been arrested after it was discovered that he had leaked early copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8 to an unknown French tech blogger.
Alex Kibkalo is a software architect who formerly worked at Microsoft for seven years. According to reports, he received a poor performance review at the company, which is no surprise given Microsoft’s controversial employee review system. The poor review persuaded him to leak trade secrets including early copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8.
This confidential data was leaked by him to a French blogger. To make things worse, Kibkalo also laid his hands on the ‘Activation Server Software Development Kit’ which is a critical piece of Microsoft’s anti-piracy effort. The kit was leaked to the blogger who then made it available online. As a result of it, a huge number of users were able to circumvent Microsoft’s anti-piracy checks.
The blogger in question used a nickname to disseminate this confidential data online. He or she later contacted another Microsoft employee later onwards and the resulting conversations divulged Kibkalo’s role in the leaks. Law enforcement agencies and Microsoft have been looking into the issue for nearly a year now and Kibkalo has finally been arrested on charges of stealing trade secrets.
This is probably one of the many stories which involve divulging important trade secrets of major tech companies ahead of their major releases and launches. It has almost become an entire industry and accurate leaks of upcoming products and launches are almost a routine now.
Courtesy: The Verge
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