SK Hynix employee sentenced to 18 months for leaking chip technology to Chinese firm

A former SK Hynix employee will serve 18 months in prison after a Seoul High Court upheld the sentence for leaking trade secrets related to CMOS image sensor technology to a Chinese company. The ruling, handed down in August 2026, caps a case that traces back to 2022, when the employee violated internal security protocols at one of the world’s most important chipmakers. The employee, who worked out of SK Hynix’s China office, printed documents and took photographs of confidential materials stored on the company’s internal server. He then disclosed those details as part of a job application to an undisclosed Chinese firm. What was stolen and how it happened CMOS image sensors are the tiny chips that let smartphone and laptop cameras capture images. South Korea classifies CMOS image sensor technology under its industrial technology protection laws, which means leaking it isn’t just a corporate offense. It’s treated as a matter of national security. SK Hynix operates under strict internal security measures designed to prevent exactly this kind of breach. External storage devices are banned. Printing activity is tracked and logged. Upon discovery, the defendant admitted to the charges....