A former SK Hynix employee has been found guilty of printing 4,000 pages of sensitive technical documents from a Shanghai subsidiary and carrying them out of the building in shopping bags before leaving for her new job at Huawei. The incident highlights the ongoing use of traditional methods in modern data theft cases.
The defendant, who worked at SK Hynix since 2013, allegedly printed the documents for study purposes to help smooth over the transition before her resignation. However, she used a workaround to avoid security measures, printing the files on paper and then carrying them out in shifts using shopping bags.
SK Hynix’s Shanghai facility was noted for having less rigorous security than other offices, allowing the employee to carry out the theft without being detected. The employee was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $14,300 after breaching South Korea’s Industrial Technology Protection Act.
Notably, prosecutors failed to prove that Huawei received the stolen information, and SK Hynix did not report specific financial damage from the incident. This resulted in a lighter sentence for the employee.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/an-sk-hynix-employee-printed-out-4-000-pages-of-confidential-info-and-carried-it-out-the-door-in-shopping-bags-before-leaving-for-their-new-job-at-huawei