Concerns have re-emerged over the illegal transfer of high technology abroad, which has been worsening in recent years, in the wake of the latest leak case in which industrial spies handed over key automobile building technology of Hyundai Motor to Chinese firms.
Prosecutors Friday arrested two Hyundai Motor employees, who stole core technology for the automatic transmission of a sports utility vehicle (SUV) that the carmaker has developed with an investment of 300 billion won ($323 million) for two years, to a Chinese carmaker.
Identified by surnames Yun and Kim, they sold CDs containing hundreds of drafts of the automatic transmission for the top South Korean carmaker’s SUV “Santa Fe’’ and those of its popular sedan “NF Sonata’’ to China’s Jianghuai Automobile Company for 1 billion won.
Kia Motors, a Hyundai Motor affiliate and the country’s second-largest carmaker, detected a similar case in May, when several former employees attempted to leak secret information including key car-assembling technology to a Chinese competitor.
But this week’s case appears to be the first that core auto-making technology has been leaked. Experts estimate the leaked information could cause trillions of won in damages and, more importantly, help China narrow the technology gap with South Korea.
Chinese automakers have constantly demanded their South Korean partners transfer core technology to them, as they have stepped up efforts to create their own brands in order to advance onto the global market.
However, some of the companies, unable to acquire the necessary technology through legal channels, have tried to get them from South Korean firms through illicit ways such as industrial spying.
“Our advanced technologies could be further leaked to China in the future since Chinese carmakers go to enormous lengths to get the necessary information,’’ said an official at a local automaker.
Preventive Measures
The outflow of confidential technology via industrial spies has so far been concentrated largely on industrial sectors such as shipbuilding, semiconductors and information technology (IT). But the automobile sector is now seen as no exception.
According to the National Intelligence Service (NIS), a total of 124 illegal transfer cases worth some 185.6 trillion won were uncovered before or after the leaks between 2003 and 2007.
“We see the number of cases gradually rising ? from 6 in 2003 to 26 in 2004, 29 in 2005 and 31 in 2006,’’ an NIS official said. “Most of them involved former or incumbent employees of local companies.’’
Local companies including Hyundai-Kia Group are looking to come up with countermeasures to prevent the technology leaks by tightening the control of their intranets and providing incentives to employees.
Samsung Electronics, for example, has already adopted an advanced security system in its Digital Media Research Center, where each researcher’s location can be traced through satellite-recognized identification cards, in addition to anti-eavesdropping devices.
Experts suggest that the companies also focus on the management of human resources, giving more financial incentives to researchers and other employees and encouraging them to be armed with high-level security awareness even after retirement. By Ryu Jin-
Staff Reporter [Source: Koreatimes]
December 15th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
O, no. This cant be happening. If its like this the Chinese auto company who was stealing the info should be sacked. Hyundai-Kia auto group should do something like Samsung. Darn those Chinese auto makers!
December 15th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Unfortunately this is happening Boris! The Chinese automakers are trying all kinds of methods to acquire the latest state of the art automotive technology, including stealing.
December 15th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Sad state of affairs for sure – but just reaffirms what everyone knew for quite a while! Wonder if other auto makers have the same espionage problem and how they try to deal with them?
December 15th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Well, I have heard of these cases and sometimes see it in newspapers. But I thought Hyundai-Kia auto group were safe coz I knew about Samsung’s security system, so I assumed that all companies in Korea have it. BUt it didnt turn out that way.
December 15th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Well, hopefully Hyundai and Kia wil enact some more safeguarding technology immediately. This is not good news and it is extremely irritating.
December 15th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Chery, that’s childish.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Chery? that reminds me. that mid-size sedan from chery looks like volvo’s sedan. But they’re not the only one in China. There’s BYD(who are making progress with their own designs), Noble (who seem to have copied Smart) and ShuangHuan that has copied the design of X5.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
sorry. I think Noble is a car from ShuangHuan that looks like Smart fortwo. and BYD does have some copies but they have one car thats “unique” called BYD F6. the BYD that has most relevence to another car is their F8 which looks like Merc. The F3 looks fine, not too much cues from corolla but The best car in China right now must be the BYD F3R
December 15th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
i think that the allies companies of kia and hyundai in china must be the responsible of the leaks, dong feng yueda and Guangzhou Motor Group, they can have contact with employees of the central in korea and eventually do possible the industrial spying.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
that was the best car. the best brand in China is China’s first auto brand, FAW. and guess what the full form is… First Automobile Works.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
China’s brand names are hard to pronounce like peugeot.
December 16th, 2007 at 6:47 am
Man, thats irritating! I hate it when companies try to steal someone else’s technology! Hyundai has put in a lot of time and money into this and two idiots sell it for 1/300 of the money that it cost Hyundai!
December 16th, 2007 at 8:47 am
grrr! IF I HAD A BIG EHOUGH FOOT, I’D SQUASH THE CAR FACTORIES THAT MAKE THE CHINESE CARS.
December 16th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I’ll be away for CHristmas holidays for sometime. I’ll miss this place. I’ll be back on 28 or 29 Dec. I’ll try to stay in touch with you guys.