[정치][단독] ‘Industrial spy’ aimed at small and medium-sized businesses was caught one after another…’cotton bat’ punished for technology leakage

[앵커]

It is a’wigship’, a ship that floats on the sea and moves.

It is a national core technology that has been successfully commercialized by a domestic company for the first time in the world, and cases of industrial technology leakage have been discovered one after another, such as retired employees stealing the technology and being caught by our intelligence authorities.

Following large corporations, small and medium-sized venture companies are now targets of’industrial spy’, and the scale of damage to technology leakage to domestic and overseas is also increasing.

Reporter Hwang Hye-gyeong covered it.

[기자]

President Moon Jae-in’s own test drive at the 2017’Sea Day’ ceremony.

As a ship that can float about 1m above the sea and move at high speed, a domestic company successfully commercialized it for the first time in the world.

However, when two employees, including the head of the research institute, retired, we were caught by our intelligence authorities while trying to establish a similar company by stealing development experiment data and design drawings, and to promote production with foreign companies.

At the same time, the “national core technology” developed by investing tens of billions of won over a dozen years almost came into the hands of competitors.

[조현욱 / ‘위그선’ 개발 업체 대표이사 : 이런 거 정도 가져간 게 뭐가 죄가 되느냐, 이게 무슨 국가핵심기술이냐 (하는 인식을 하고 있습니다.) 자기 것 아닌 것은 가져가서는 안 되고 더군다나 국가핵심기술은 어떤 이유가 되든지 가져가선 안 됩니다. (기업과 국가 승인 없이) 해외 유출됐을 때는 이적행위로 또 매국 행위로 엄벌에 처해야 된다는 게….]

With its core technology capable of accurately measuring down to 1/1000mm thickness, the manufacturer suffered even more serious damage.

With the development of organic light-emitting diodes and OLED thickness gauges and exports to China worth 10 billion won, their programmers stole the technology.

With the stolen technology, similar equipment was made in China and sold at low prices, so all of the research and development that has been devoted for 10 years has been lost.

He knocked on the door of the NIS with a feeling of grabbing straw, looked for evidence of leakage, and led the perpetrator to jail, but there is no way to be compensated for material and mental damage.

[최병곤 / 계측장비 제조업체 대표이사 : (회사에 있는 원본과) 그 친구가 유출한 거랑 1자 하나 틀리지 않고 완전히 싱크로율 100%로 나왔으니까…. (공모한 중국 교포는) 결혼할 때 ‘주례 좀 서 주세요’ 할 정도로 저하고 굉장히 돈독한 관계였어요. 뒤에 가서 그렇게 할 거라곤 전혀 생각을 못 했죠.]

From 2015 to 20, there were 130 cases of overseas technology leaks uncovered by the NIS.

In the last 5 years, more than 600 cases were detected by the National Police Agency’s industrial technology leak investigation team, and the number of arrested people exceeded 1,700.

Most of them fell into the temptation of financial gains such as high salaries, and the amount of direct or indirect damage caused by this is estimated to amount to tens of trillions of won.

In a situation where Korea, a high-tech information technology powerhouse, is becoming a field of competition for industrial spies, there is a strong voice that more fundamental measures are urgently needed along with strengthening security awareness.

This is YTN Hwang Hye-kyung.

[앵커]

The reality is that even if industrial technology leaks are caught difficultly, most of them are released on probation.

It is pointed out that in order to prevent the difficultly developed high-tech technology from falling at low prices, it is necessary to strengthen penalties and support the security system of mid-sized and venture companies.

Reporter Kim Do-won reports.

[기자]

Recently, the damage from technology leakage has been concentrated on SMEs.

Looking at the industrial technology leaks over the past five years, more than 90% of the victims are small and medium-sized businesses.

Two-thirds of overseas technology breaches uncovered by intelligence authorities were targeted at SMEs.

Even small and medium-sized enterprises with advanced technology are aiming for the lack of security systems.

[장항배 / 중앙대 산업보안학과 교수 : 대기업에 비해서 자원이 부족하니까 상대적 우선순위가 떨어지기 마련입니다. 그렇기 때문에 보안의 체계들이 많이 소홀한 게 사실이고, 그런 부분에 대해서 많이 취약점에 노출돼있는 게 현실입니다.]

The punishment for the crime of technology leakage is also at the level of a cotton bat.

Looking at cases of punishment for violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act for five years since 2015, only 4 of the 28 convicted people were sentenced to jail sentences.

It is pointed out that most of them are probation or fines even if they are caught, and if they do not get caught, they can dream of reversing their lives with a high salary, so they will be weakened by temptation.

[임형주 / 법무법인 율촌 변호사 : 영업비밀 사건은 대략 2년 정도 걸리는데요, 그에 따라서 비용도 상당히 들고, 조직 내 피로도 상당히 많이 누적이 됩니다. 그런데 막상 선고가 집행유예로 끝나버리면 허무함을 넘어서 이런 절차를 왜 했나…]

Recently, most of the data is digitally managed, so once leaked it is difficult to recover it, so precautionary prevention is the most important.

Therefore, it is argued that the government should actively support so that companies with advanced technology can have a security system.

Although the National Intelligence Service and the Industrial Technology Protection Association are active, the manpower and budget are still insufficient to fully support companies.

In the era of high-tech global competition, as technology leaks can lead to national wealth leaks, strengthened pre- and post-measures are urgent.

Experts point out that it is also important to prepare effective remedies, such as further raising the level of punitive damages to recover from damage caused by technology leakage.

This is YTN Kim Do-won.