In December 1947, when John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Labs placed a metal contact on a germanium crystal to amplify an electrical signal, humanity's timeline entered a new orbit called "electronics." It marked the birth of the transistor, which replaced the vacuum tube, and the dawn of the semiconductor — the seed of the computer, the smartphone, and the internet. A flustered Soviet Union mobilized its intelligence agency, the KGB, in an all-out effort to replicate American technology. It was the beginning of semiconductor technology leaks.
On the 27th, a Taiwanese court handed down a heavy 10-year prison sentence to Chen Li-ming, a former TSMC employee who stole core technology from the chipmaker's 2-nanometer process. Chen, who had moved to the Japanese semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron, used his former colleagues to smuggle out advanced process blueprints and internal documents via mobile phone. The case carries exceptional weight as the first in which Taiwan's judicial authorities applied the "national core technology" provision of the National Security Act to deliver an exemplary punishment. Taiwanese prosecutors described the ruling as "reflecting the will to protect the semiconductor industry."
In Korea as well, the Seoul High Court last week finalized a sentence of 6 years and 4 months in prison for a former Samsung Electronics executive who handed semiconductor technology over to China, in a retrial following a Supreme Court reversal. According to the National Office of Investigation under the Korean National Police Agency, arrests for industrial technology leak crimes reached 179 cases last year, a 45% surge from the previous year. Semiconductors accounted for the largest share at 41 cases, while overseas leaks reached 105. Yet roughly one in two domestic industrial technology offenders receives a suspended sentence. When companies lose technology they developed by pouring in enormous sums, who will fear the law if the punishment is weak? The Espionage Act was revised in February this year to expand its scope from "enemy states" to "foreign countries," and reinforced provisions for punishing technology leaks take effect in September — but whether the courts will show the resolve to crack down remains to be seen.
Once technology leaks out, there is no way to reverse it. As important as punishment is vigilance from within, starting with company insiders. Samsung Electronics' union members, whose company just posted a bonanza in operating profit, are reportedly going on strike to demand higher performance bonuses. The company says it cannot make enough chips to meet demand — one has to wonder just how much attention is being paid to protecting the technology behind it.
