{"id":932216,"date":"2026-10-14T03:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T03:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/932216\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T03:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T03:10:10","slug":"openai-engineer-charged-after-listening-device-found-in-meeting-room-technology-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/932216\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI engineer charged after listening device found in meeting room | Technology News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">US authorities says Saudi national was arrested and charged for allegedly planting a concealed surveillance device.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"avatar\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/author\/al_jazeera_staff_150119130629458\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791947410_719_2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg\"   aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Published On 13 Oct 202613 Oct 2026<\/p>\n<p>A Saudi national who worked as an engineer at the artificial intelligence firm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/10\/9\/ex-openai-staff-say-they-were-fired-for-raising-safety-concerns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">OpenAI<\/a> has been arrested after a listening device was found in the company\u2019s conference room, according to United States authorities.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Justice said that the employee, identified as a 35-year-old Saudi engineer named Abdulrahman Alfozan, had worked at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/9\/29\/openai-scraps-release-of-latest-ai-model-over-safety-concerns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the company<\/a> since July 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors accused Alfozan of using the listening device to illegally obtain sensitive information.<\/p>\n<p>Alfozan made his first court appearance on Tuesday and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProtecting American [super intelligence] innovation is essential to safeguarding our nation\u2019s economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities,\u201d Kash Patel, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said in response to the arrest.<\/p>\n<p>The incident raises concerns about surveillance and underhanded efforts to gain an edge in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/9\/24\/how-an-openai-agent-hacked-australias-medicare-and-what-that-means\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AI sector<\/a>, where companies and countries have angled for an advantage.<\/p>\n<p>US Attorney General Todd Blanche said the case was \u201ctaken extremely seriously\u201d, adding \u201ctheft of intellectual property involving cutting-edge super intelligence technology poses a serious threat to our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Justice Department complaint said that the device, concealed in toilet paper, was installed around September 28 and discovered on September 30.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors explained that video surveillance from OpenAI\u2019s offices showed Alfozan appearing near the executive conference room on multiple dates before the device was discovered, despite having no authority to access the room or participate in its meetings. Such meetings, they added, were highly confidential.<\/p>\n<p>OpenAI security personnel also reportedly found a second listening device in Alfozan\u2019s bag.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code or customer data,\u201d OpenAI said in a social media post. \u201cThe employee was terminated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company also said it used its own AI models to identify the person allegedly responsible for planting the device.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe referred the matter to the FBI, and we\u2019re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest. The FBI\u2019s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alfozan has been charged with using or endeavouring to use an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US authorities says Saudi national was arrested and charged for allegedly planting a concealed surveillance device. Published On&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,1686,49,48,13444,2169,893,44,61,772,1690],"class_list":["post-932216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-business-and-economy","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-government","tag-news","tag-technology","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}