Samsung Investigating An Employee For Allegedly Stealing Chip Secrets

Samsung has had all sorts of problems recently, including a massive data breach. It seems the company just can’t catch a break. Korean media is reporting a possible theft of confidential information by a Samsung employee.

According to the Korea JoongAng Daily, a Samsung employee may have taken photographs of confidential information related to the company’s chip fabrication processes. The said employee is reportedly leaving the Korean behemoth soon and was working from home on the day of the alleged theft.

Since the security system doesn’t allow employees to take screenshots of any confidential information on computer screens, the person used a smartphone to take photographs of it. The information stolen could include chip fabrication secrets of advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, including 3nm and 4nm chips.

The employee may have taken hundreds of photographs, multiple Korean media outlets have suggested. So the scope of information stolen could be much wider. More importantly, this suggests the person intended to hand over the information to rival firms. However, there’s no evidence of any third party accessing that information as yet. Samsung has launched an investigation into the matter.

“The person is under investigation for violating information protection rules,” a company spokesperson told the publication confirming the alleged theft. “But it is not yet known the type of information compromised and whether the person handed it to a third party.”

This alleged theft of confidential information is the latest in a string of internal troubles Samsung has had recently. Last month, the company launched an investigation into suspected fraud at its chip division. Some top-level executives may have fabricated the yield rate data of its advanced semiconductor processes to misplace funds. While it’s unclear what the Korean brand found, it may have already suffered a huge loss of business due to the reported poor yields. Qualcomm now reportedly wants TSMC to manufacture its 3nm chips instead of Samsung.

A massive benchmark manipulation controversy followed that. Samsung was found to be throttling the performance of several apps on its phones using its Game Optimization Service (GOS). The company has since lifted those limitations with a software update but not before widespread criticism and a potential investigation by the Korean watchdog.

Now, the reports of an employee stealing confidential information don’t bode well for Samsung. We will keep a close eye on this matter and let you know as and when we have more information.