A former employee of SK hynix has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $14,300 for stealing critical technologies just before her move to Huawei.
The court found the woman guilty of violating South Korea's industrial technology protection laws. The lenient sentence suggests that prosecutors were unable to prove that Huawei received proprietary information.
The defendant worked at SK Hynix since 2013, starting with chip defect analysis. In 2020, she became the head of the B2B customer relations group at a subsidiary in China. Her role provided access to confidential technical documentation necessary for chip production. In 2020, she decided to join Huawei for a higher salary. Before resigning from SK hynix, she printed approximately 4,000 pages of highly confidential documents over a span of four days.
These documents contained specific "solutions to semiconductor manufacturing process issues," which are regarded as core technology under South Korean law. The woman printed about 300 pages a day and concealed them in her backpack and bags to avoid detection.
The court ruled that these actions violated South Korea's industrial technology protection law. The defendant claimed that she printed the documents solely for training and to ensure a smooth transfer of responsibilities after her departure, but the court found her explanations unconvincing.
In its ruling, the court noted that the woman's behavior was highly suspicious, primarily because she printed the materials shortly before leaving SK hynix to take on a high-paying position at Huawei in June 2022. The court suggested she intended to use the stolen data to enhance her value in her new role.
The leniency of the verdict was influenced by the lack of direct evidence that the stolen technology had been utilized. Additionally, SK hynix did not report any specific financial or operational losses due to the incident.
SK hynix prohibits the use of USB drives or other external storage devices and carefully monitors all printed materials, recording their contents, user information, and instances of usage. However, the court noted that security at the Shanghai office proved to be less stringent, potentially allowing the defendant to remain unnoticed.
Sources: The Korea Bizwire, Tom's Hardware
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