According to international reports, Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division recently fired an engineer accused of leaking documents incorporating key technologies, pleading with government authorities to conduct research on the subject.
The engineer was found guilty of transferring several critical documents, involving key semiconductor technologies, to his personal email account, while some data was forwarded to another email account for secondary storage.
In response to this incident, Samsung Electronics took an unusual course of action: the company released a comprehensive announcement on its internal network detailing its current situation. leakages, the dismissal of the engineer and the call for an investigation. This maneuver appears to have been devised to increase employees' understanding of the seriousness of the leaks technology.
In the past, Samsung Electronics had fired and investigated two other engineers over a similar issue. The engineer, who was planning to transfer to an overseas company, saved hundreds of photos of his personal computer screen, with key data of national key technologies, at his residence during the telework. Samsung Electronics requested an investigation into the engineer, who was arrested and handed over for trial once his suspected criminal behavior was confirmed. The original verdict sentenced the engineer to one and a half years in prison suspended for two years and fine 10 million Korean won ($7.470). The prosecution appealed, arguing for a harsher punishment, and the appeal is currently pending.
Similarly, another engineer, who was preparing to transfer to another branch of the company, was found to have stored thousands of photos of important technological data. Samsung, once again, fired him and asked for an investigation. The engineer was sentenced to prison last month. In this case too, the prosecution considered the sentence too lenient and appealed the decision.
Earlier this year, seven former researchers at Samsung Electronics subsidiary SEMES were sentenced to prison for violating the "Law on the Prevention and Protection of Industrial Technology." They were accused of illegally exploiting SEMES' trade secrets, including technology constructionof liquid semiconductor cleaning equipment. Using 24 designs they created, they built 14 pieces of equipment worth 71 billion Korean won (about US$53 million), which were reportedly exported to overseas competitors or semiconductor research institutions.
