Apple failed to spot data exfiltration, OpenAI suit shows

Apple fails to stem data exfiltration, as OpenAI poaches hundreds

Apple's lawsuit describes a campaign of theft – and also a failure of basic security, such as managing company laptops and spotting sensitive documents being emailed.

Phillip de Wet

Jul 13, 2026 - 3 min read

Apple on Friday accused OpenAI of intellectual property theft through the actions of poached employees as well as "a coordinated pattern of misconduct at an institutional level".

But its lawsuit also described what appears to be a pattern of security lapses at Apple, even as a competitor poached hundreds of its staff.

And we learnt that Apple uses third-party hosting for some of its most sensitive data.

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