Ex-ASML, NXP staffer accused of stealing chip secrets, peddling them to Moscow
- Reference: 1743748574
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/04/amsl_russian_spy/
- Source link:
The Netherlands General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) [1]claims the Russian man is a former employee of ASML and Dutch semiconductor giant NXP, and made many trips to Russia where he met intelligence operatives to share chip-making secrets.
The accused also apparently made contact with the Russian Innovative Engineering Center, a non-profit set up to advance chip technology.
[2]
Dutch intelligence allege he uploaded valuable insider info to Google Drive and shared it with his Russian contacts. Dutch press, who yesterday [3]reported the accused’s appearance in a Rotterdam court, said it was claimed he stored trade secrets on USB thumb drives he carried into Russia.
[4]
[5]
The accused has apparently admitted he had ASML documents in his possession, but said he only took them home to advance his own knowledge. He’s also reportedly said those files were old and could not assist anyone to make semiconductors.
During the trial in Rotterdam, the accused’s attorney reportedly indicated he wants to call ASML execs to the stand to testify to the court whether or how employees, presumably ones like the defendant, can get their hands on internal advanced chip-making secrets.
[6]Ex-ASML worker accused of stealing chipmaking secrets for China is Huawei to a new job
[7]ASML will open Beijing facility despite US sanctions on China
[8]Chip-making equipment maker ASML boasts of record orders, predicts a $1 trillion market by 2030
[9]Badass Russian techie outsmarts FSB, flees Putinland all while being tracked with spyware
We’re told the suspect was educated in Russia and moved to the Netherlands in 2015 after scoring a job at electron-beam lithography startup Mapper. That outfit went bust in 2020. ASML then acquired Mapper and hired the accused.
Although the defendant's name, known publicly only as German A., is [10]reportedly on four ASML patents, his performance was said to be less than satisfactory and he was laid off in 2021. He moved to semiconductor power-house NXP and later worked at Delft University.
[11]
Dutch police arrested him in August 2024, after a tip off from the intelligence services, and allegedly found confidential ASML documents on his computer plus material relating to Taiwanese chip-maker TSMC.
"ASML has no comment as this is an ongoing court case," a spokesperson told The Register . ®
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[1] https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2554733-aivd-opgepakte-werknemer-asml-had-contact-met-russische-geheime-dienst
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z--twfzqMKv2VkZm9X2epAAAAdE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.ad.nl/economie/russische-spion-reisde-volgens-om-met-usb-sticks-over-asml-naar-moskou-zegt-zelf-dat-dit-voor-eigen-gebruik-was~a2cf386e/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z--twfzqMKv2VkZm9X2epAAAAdE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z--twfzqMKv2VkZm9X2epAAAAdE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/asml_ip_huawei/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/10/asml_to_open_beijing_facility/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/21/chipmaking_equipment_maker_aslm_boasts/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/06/badass_russian_techie_outsmarts_fsb/
[10] https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/04/01/bij-asml-en-nxp-vermoedde-niemand-dat-einzelganger-german-een-spion-was-a4888410
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z--twfzqMKv2VkZm9X2epAAAAdE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
In Soviet Russia
Chip reverse engineers YOU!
Apologies for this, incidentally I looked into the 'Soviet nuclear spies' and what I learned was intriguing. In actual fact the nuclear program yielding a working device in late 1949 wasn't entirely based on the 'Christy Gadget', the thought process was already converging on implosion well before F and G leaked some of the early schematics so the only real advantage was time. Later revelations showed that Ethel Rosenberg by modern legal standards was in fact not guilty of all but one charge based on some very sloppy and polticially biased prosecution work which should have resulted in a very long prison sentence but not execution.
Interestingly they made the same sorts of mistakes as the Germans early on so the early tests were in fact very low yield based on the materials used at the time and they also had more precise data avoiding a repeat of the Slotin Incident.
Some of their explosive lenses were also substandard because they didn't do their version of RaLa but relied on the leaked data entirely explaining the other delays.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/10/ethel-rosenberg-soviet-spy-new-evidence
Ah, industrial espionage
That's how the Russians got the tech to make the Bomb.
That's how the Chinese are milking every tech they aren't given on purpose to make our stuff that we buy for cheap and then complain about.
The data is old ? Russian scientists are intelligent, they can extrapolate. If you point them in the right direction, they will attain a result.