Ex-employee of SK hynix was convicted of printing 4,000 pages – she allegedly stole technology for Huawei

A former SK hynix employee, a 36-year-old Chinese national, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined 20 million won (about $14,000) for stealing critical semiconductor technology before joining Huawei. A South Korean court found her guilty of violating the Industrial Technology Amendment Act (ITA Amendment), noting that the defendant printed about 4,000 pages of technical documentation in order to increase her value in a new job.

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The defendant’s career at SK hynix began in 2013, where she was engaged in defect analysis in semiconductor manufacturing. In 2020, she was appointed to the position of team leader responsible for working with business clients of the Chinese branch of the company, which included access to a vast array of technological data and confidential information. This experience allowed her to apply for a higher-paying position at Huawei, which she accepted in June 2022.

The court rejected the defendant’s arguments that the printing of documents – about 4,000 pages over 4 days – was necessary for training purposes and the transfer of cases. The defense insisted that these materials were copied solely to perform work tasks. However, the court noted that such actions seemed unusual: the documents were printed in June 2022, just a few days before her dismissal from the company and subsequent employment with Huawei. In this case, the data theft occurred in the SK hynix office in Shanghai, where security measures were less stringent.

The court found that the defendant took out approximately 300 pages of printed documents every day, hiding them in her backpack and shopping bag. This methodical and systematic approach raised suspicions of deliberate violation of data confidentiality, which did not escape the investigation. The prosecution emphasized that information related to semiconductor manufacturing technologies could be of significant value to the defendant’s new employer.

The court also suggested that the defendant’s transition to work for Huawei immediately after leaving SK hynix could indicate her intention to use the stolen technical documentation to confirm her professional worth. Shortly after returning to South Korea in June 2022, she began working at Huawei, which raised serious suspicions among investigators.

However, when sentencing, the court took into account the lack of evidence that the stolen information was actually used at the new place of work, as well as the absence of stated material claims on the part of SK hynix. These circumstances became the basis for reducing the term of imprisonment and limiting the amount of the fine.

The trial also revealed the security measures that SK hynix takes to protect sensitive data. The company prohibits the use of removable media, such as USB drives, and all printed materials are subject to strict control: the contents of the document, information about the printer user, and the purpose of printing are recorded. However, the defendant managed to bypass these security measures in the Shanghai office of SK hynix, from where the documents were stolen.