The former SK hynix employee reportedly stole technology related to semiconductor production and ended up leaving the South Korean company to join Huawei in 2020. She was already working in China for SK hynix at the time of her departure and her job gave her access to documents related to the production of chips. Before leaving SK hynix, she printed 4,000 documents of importance over four days.
SK hynix technology was stolen by an ex-worker who moved to Huawei. | Image credit-SK hynix
These documents contained information considered to be core technology under South Korean law. To avoid detection, she printed about 300 pages per day and hid them in her backpack and shopping bags. During her trial, she told the court that she made these copies to help her study the technology and to guarantee that her departure to Huawei would result in a smooth handover of information.
Despite finding her guilty, the court could not find evidence that Huawei used the stolen information which kept the court from imposing a harsher sentence. Additionally, the court could not find that SK hynix had been harmed from the incident. This will be another notch on the belt for those who consider Huawei to be a bad actor on the global stage.
The company is already known as a national security threat in the U.S. As a result, it has been placed on the U.S. entity list preventing it from dealing with its U.S. supply chain. Export rules prevent foundries that use American technology to ship cutting-edge chips to Huawei.