Rakuten worker arrested for alleged SoftBank 5G secrets leak

Rakuten Mobile confirmed the person is an employee, but said an internal investigation found no evidence that information from his prior employer had been used. — AFP Relaxnews

A former SoftBank Corp employee has been arrested in Japan on suspicion of illegally bringing 5G trade secrets to his new employer, Rakuten Mobile Inc, as it was preparing to launch its own mobile network.

The suspect, a 45-year-old male, used his personal computer to access SoftBank’s cloud servers and email confidential files to himself, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. SoftBank issued a statement saying that 4G and 5G networking plans and technology were among the information compromised, though no client data had been exposed. Rakuten Mobile confirmed the person is an employee, but said an internal investigation found no evidence that information from his prior employer had been used.