Where Was Nvidia's Security Team? Questions After CEO Jensen Huang's Departure
After Jensen Huang left Nvidia, the U.S. chipmaker, questions are being raised about what its security team knew of the Megaspeed investigation and his relationships. Nvidia has not answered them.
The security team at Nvidia, the U.S. chipmaker, has come under scrutiny after CEO Jensen Huang left the company. The reason is questions about his extramarital relationships, including one with an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore data center company that U.S. investigators suspect of funneling Nvidia chips to China. Megaspeed has denied any wrongdoing. The open question is whether the company's security specialists knew about this and whether anyone raised concerns.
Change at the top of security
In August, longtime chief security officer David Reber stepped down. He had spent seven years at Nvidia, four of them as CSO. On LinkedIn he cited health reasons, saying he was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's more than two years ago. His replacement, Saša Zdjelar, previously spent 17 years at ExxonMobil, one year at Salesforce and several years at the cybersecurity firm ReversingLabs. Nothing public links the changes to the Megaspeed matter. Neither Reber nor Zdjelar answered questions.
What others knew
Some people inside Nvidia appear to have known parts of the picture. The New York Times reported that Nvidia's top lawyer was involved in the government's Megaspeed inquiry more than a year ago. Five employees told the paper that Huang was involved with a vice president reporting directly to him, and Reuters, citing two people, reported a second relationship. It is unclear whether any of this reached the security team.
Expert view
Nicholas Eftimiades, a retired senior intelligence officer who says he has trained more than 1,000 corporate security professionals, notes that foreign intelligence services can exploit such relationships as vulnerabilities. Spotting the risk is hard because information is often gathered through everyday conversation rather than hacking. He adds that security teams are often underfunded and that many companies define security narrowly. He hopes the episode will be a wake-up call for U.S. industry about China's tactics.
What the security team knew may become clearer as the board's independent investigation and the federal inquiries proceed.
