An industrial espionage investigation involving TSMC has just taken a more dramatic turn now that Taiwanese authorities have extended their charges against Tokyo Electron. The Japanese company will be fined on suspicion of not having created sufficient obstacles to prevent its employees from stealing secret information from the Taiwanese chip manufacturer.
“(…) beyond general internal and preventive rules, the company had no evidence of concrete management or prevention measures”, say the Taiwanese authorities. “Prosecutors therefore determine that the company (Tokyo Electron) failed to take necessary steps to prevent wrongdoing and should face criminal liability under the relevant provisions.”
Tokyo Electron is reportedly seeking more details about the accusations and has not yet issued an official press release about the case. The company says it has cooperated with the investigation since August.
Understand the case involving TSMC and Tokyo Electron
Industrial espionage is a reality that most large technology companies must constantly face. While many cases come from rival companies, the situation with Tokyo Electron is curious because it is one of TSMC’s partners.
Three executives from the Japanese company were accused of stealing information about TSMC’s 2nm process not to compete with it, but rather to better adjust its equipment and gain an advantage as a supplier of machinery to the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer.
Tokyo Electron claims that there is no evidence that these secrets have been sold to third parties. Despite accusing the company of not offering sufficient obstacles to prevent what happened, the Taiwanese authorities did not go so far as to allege, at this point, that Tokyo Electron had direct participation in espionage or that it had used information obtained illegally.
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This is one of the major espionage investigations that TSMC is involved in at the moment. At the same time, in the US, the company began a lawsuit accusing a former executive of having joined Intel to bring sensitive knowledge and key technologies from Taiwan to his new job.
Via: Tom’s Hardware
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Source: https://www.adrenaline.com.br/hardware/taiwan-acusa-empresa-japonesa-de-permitir-roubo-de-informacoes-da-tsmc/
