The Seoul High Court sentenced a former SK Hynix employee to 18 months in prison for leaking semiconductor technology. This ruling upholds a previous conviction for violating industrial technology and trade secret laws.
The employee worked at the company's China office and accessed classified data on CMOS image sensors. These sensors are critical components for smartphone cameras and laptop hardware.
The defendant photographed or printed confidential documents from company servers in 2022. They admitted to including this proprietary information in a résumé submitted to an unnamed Chinese firm while seeking a new job.
SK Hynix reportedly recovered the majority of the leaked data. The court emphasized that the sentence reflects South Korea's commitment to protecting its semiconductor industry from global espionage.