By Lee Hyo-sik
A growing number of Korean companies, particularly small-and medium-sized ones, deal with leaks of their industrial technology and other corporate secrets to rivals at home and abroad.
According to the National Police Agency on Sunday, 82 individuals were caught in the first three months of the year on charges of orchestrating a total of 17 illegal industrial technology transfers.
With only six cases the previous year, this is a large leap.
Police said non-Korean enterprises were involved in seven in which employees of Korean firms stole business secrets and passed them onto rival companies overseas in return for cash and other personal gains.
Domestic firms and their staff were involved in the remaining 10 incidents.
A police officer said investigators have made more efforts over the years to crack down on the illegal transfer of industrial technology and other confidential corporate information engineered by employees.
“Thanks to our increased efforts, we were able to clamp down on more industrial espionage and apprehend those responsible. But still, many small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMES) are struggling to stop technology leaks either to larger firms or rivals overseas,” the officer said.
An unidentified small-sized enterprise manufacturing inspection equipment of empty plastic and glass bottles recently discovered two of its former employees had stolen the machine’s drawings and other core information.
In 2002 the company developed the world’s most accurate device that picks out defective glass.
Following the breakthrough it immediately emerged as a market leader in Korea, China and other countries.
Over the past few years the enterprise has seen its market share and revenue decline. Its recent setback was due to the technology leak engineered by two former employees — a 43-year-old former sales director surnamed Jang and a 37-year old former manager of a tech support team surnamed Kim. They were booked without physical detention on April 5.
Police said the company’s Japanese rival made recruitment offers to the two individuals in January 2007, asking them to steal the blueprints of the inspection equipment and other confidential corporate information.
Before moving to the Japanese firm, they downloaded files containing the business secrets onto their personal laptop computers precisely to hand the information over to their new employer.
Over the past five years the firm is estimated to have sustained huge financial losses, amounting to as much as 400 billion won ($360 million), in the Chinese market alone, as a result of the leak.