Samsung Electronics employees about to quit their jobs "Almost leaked tens of trillion won in semiconductor technology"

An incumbent employee of Samsung Electronics was caught trying to leak internal secrets such as core semiconductor technologies to the outside world. The technology is known to be related to semiconductor consignment production (foundry) in which Samsung Electronics has invested tens of trillion won over the past few years to foster it as a next-generation food product.

According to the semiconductor industry on the 23rd, Samsung Electronics is investigating an employee of the foundry division of the semiconductor parts division on charges of leaking information.

The employee is suspected of accessing company security data while working from home. It is reported that Samsung Electronics' remote business system (RBS) cannot be captured, so hundreds of files of security data were displayed on the monitor and photographed with a camera. The company reportedly suspected that the employee, who is about to leave the company, frequently accessed a number of security data while working from home, and called in the employee to investigate, revealing this fact was revealed.

The scope and importance of the data accessed by the employee are currently being investigated. The government has also participated in the survey due to national industrial security issues. It has yet to be confirmed whether it will leak to its competitors. An official from Samsung Electronics said, "It is true that a security violation has occurred," adding, "We are currently conducting an investigation."

The industry is taking the leak seriously. Samsung Electronics is a "only" company that is mass-producing semiconductors with a state-of-the-art process of 5 nanometers (1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter) along with TSMC in Taiwan. In order to chase TSMC, a total of 171 trillion won is also being invested in the system semiconductor sector, including foundry, by 2030. With the recent rapid growth of the foundry market, Intel in the U.S. and SMIC in China are also making astronomical investments. In the meantime, concerns are raised that if Samsung Electronics' mass-production technology is handed over to its competitors, the technology gap could narrow rapidly.

An official from the semiconductor industry said, "The semiconductor industry's characteristic is that production difficulties increase exponentially as it evolves into high-tech processes," adding, "The display industry should also re-establish technology security after all."