25 cases of technology theft to overseas caught this year

The number of cases involving individuals caught attempting to steal Korea’s key industrial technologies, such as displays and batteries, and send them abroad is increasing every year. Most of the stolen technologies have been found to be destined for China.

The National Police Agency's National Office of Investigation (NOI) announced on Monday that it sent 25 cases of industrial technology theft to prosecutors between January and October this year. Of these, 10 cases involved national core technologies related to national security, such as semiconductors and batteries.

The number of cases involving national core technology theft has surged from just one in 2021, when the NOI was launched, to four in 2022, two last year, and more than 10 this year. By country, China accounted for the highest number of technology theft cases (18), followed by the United States (3), and Germany, Vietnam, Iran, and Japan (1 each). Displays made up more than half of the stolen technologies, with eight cases involving displays and seven involving semiconductors.

The technology was stolen using a variety of methods. The most common techniques were photographing or emailing the victim's data (5 cases each), followed by disclosure through social networking services (3 cases), USB storage devices (3 cases), printing (2 cases), and employee theft (2 cases). Police recovered 4.9 billion won in criminal proceeds from six cases of technology theft.


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