I think the subtext here is that the “spy” in question was not the sharpest tool in the shed.

You need some level of intelligence and knowledge to know what is worth stealing and what to do with it.

Getting a major with the sole purpose of industrial espionage and then telling people about it indicates a lot about the person in question.

Yeah, yeah. I’m not saying it is easy business. What I am saying is that “bouncing around many companies in a quick succession and then leaving for their home country” is exactly the pattern one would exhibit with that plan. If one would want to show that their plan didn’t work out then one would be talking about other things. For example that they only got junior jobs with no access to the code/secrets, or that they were only hired in fields outside of their interest, etc etc.

I would be very careful doing that at Google. Even if just about anything is accessible, I imagine most access is logged. If you are downloading everything not related to your job it could raise some alarms!

Didn't stop Anthony Levandowski

Presidential pardon is the one weird trick that employers hate, when you steal IP and get caught