July 9, 2004

A man arrested last week on allegations that he stole proprietary source code from the AltaVista search engine 2 years ago is apparently a Microsoft employee working on MSN's Search initiative.

Federal authorities allege that Laurent Chavet, a former AltaVista employee, illegally accessed the California company's computer system in March 2002 and June 2002, after he left AltaVista and well before he went to work for Microsoft.

Chavet, then living in California, copied to his home computer source code that was used by AltaVista "to perform the function of scouring the World Wide Web," according to an FBI affidavit.

Chavet's arrest was announced by the U.S. attorney in northern California last week without reference to his current employment. Microsoft acknowledged yesterday that Chavet is a Microsoft employee but declined to name the team on which he works.

However, three other people with knowledge of Chavet's Microsoft employment confirmed that he has been working on the MSN Search effort. A brief biography attached to a paper Chavet co-wrote on text analytics described him as an expert "in all aspects of search technology." He worked at IBM's Almaden Research Center after leaving AltaVista and before joining Microsoft.

Microsoft's MSN division has been developing its own algorithmic search engine to replace technology it currently licenses from Yahoo! Inc.'s Inktomi unit. Microsoft last week released a preview of the new MSN Search technology, and the company said it hopes to come out with a final version within the next year. The project is part of an effort by the company to compete more effectively with Google.

Citing a policy against discussing personnel issues, Microsoft declined to answer questions about Chavet's case, including whether it is investigating on its own to determine whether Chavet incorporated any of the allegedly stolen AltaVista technology into any of his work at Microsoft. A Microsoft spokeswoman, Tami Begasse, referred questions about the criminal investigation to the FBI, and said company policy requires employees act "honestly and ethically, and comply with all laws and regulations."

The allegations in the indictment against Chavet "do not pertain to Microsoft," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Sonderby, chief of the U.S. Attorney's Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property unit in Northern California, which is prosecuting the case. The FBI did not seize computers from Microsoft as part of the case, said Greg Fowler, the supervising special agent for the agency's Northwest Cyber Crime Task Force. AltaVista was acquired in 2003 by Overture Services, which was subsequently acquired by Yahoo! A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

Reached yesterday at his Kirkland home, Chavet, 29, declined to comment and said he had yet to retain a lawyer. A French national, he was required to surrender his passport after his arrest, court documents show. He is scheduled for arraignment July 20 in San Francisco.

The first alleged hacking incident took place a month after Chavet left AltaVista, authorities say. Chavet told an investigator that he used a former co-worker's log-in to access the company's computer system, according to an FBI affidavit. Authorities allege that Chavet caused more than $5,000 in damage to the AltaVista system after gaining access a second time, in June 2002.

According to the FBI affidavit, Chavet told investigators that he worked on the AltaVista source code while at the company and logged into the AltaVista system after leaving because he "was curious" about the evolution of the source code after his departure."

Source: Seattle PI.com

        

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