Prosecutors in South Korea havecharged a Chinese nationalwho worked in defect analysis atSK hynixwith stealing semiconductor technology. The accused allegedly took thousands of pages of information about front-end semiconductor technology for Chinese chipmaker Huawei.
The unidentified womanwas arrested at a South Korean airportin April 2024, according to Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police officials. She’s charged with violating South Korea’s Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology. The act imposes tough sentencing laws for anyone convicted of leaking or stealing technology information from South Korea.
According to prosecutors, the unidentified woman began working for SK hynix in 2013. Then, from 2020 to 2022, she worked as a team leader at a Chinese subsidiary of the company. Her role involved analyzing design flaws causingsemiconductor failures.
When the Chinese national returned to South Korea in 2022, she allegedly took a position withHuaweialmost immediately. Before leaving SK hynix, though, prosecutors say she printed 3,000 pages of A4 paper with solutions to core semiconductor process issues.
Police suspect the woman carried the documents out of the country in bags to turn over to Huawei. She has denied the allegations. SK hynix doesn’t allow the use of USB storage devices and tracks all print jobs within the company.
When SK hynix learned of the large amount of pages the woman had printed, it reported the anomaly to the police. By then, the Chinese national had already left the country. When she entered South Korea again in 2024, police arrested her at the airport.
Under South Korean law, the woman faces up to 18 years in prison if convicted. The country’s sentencing guidelines are tougher on those convicted of smuggling designated key technologies, which includesemiconductor manufacturing methods, out of the country.
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South Korea has seen an increase in criminal cases relating to stealing technology on behalf of Chinese companies. In December 2023,two ex-Samsung employees were chargedwith stealing DRAM technology for Chinese chipmaker CXMT.
Jeff Butts has been covering tech news for more than a decade, and his IT experience predates the internet. Yes, he remembers when 9600 baud was “fast.” He especially enjoys covering DIY and Maker topics, along with anything on the bleeding edge of technology.
