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S Korea heightens security against China tech theft

SEOUL - South Korea's high-tech companies are protecting themselves against possible industrial espionage after prosecutors announced they had begun investigating allegations of a leak of cellular phone technology from Hyundai Syscomm Co to UTStarcom Inc in China, an industry source said Wednesday.

Beginning next month, Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world's second-largest maker of memory chips, will introduce digital rights management (DRM) technologies to prevent unauthorized access to and duplication of intellectual property on its computer systems.

The technology will prevent its computer documents or chip-design sketches from being read outside the company, according to the source.

Hynix has been operating computer security software on its computer system since April that prohibits employees from saving data onto floppy disks or other portable devices used for transferring data.

Adaptive Plasma Technology Corp, a local semiconductor equipment maker, has also employed DRM solutions along with a computer security system that can monitor employees' e-mail traffic.

MagnaChip Semiconductor Co, which was recently sold to a Citigroup-led consortium, is also scheduled to soon adopt a comprehensive security program, the source said.
LG Philips LCD Co, the world's second-largest maker of liquid crystal displays, is better securing its intellectual property by encoding outbound e-mails and putting wider limits on its internal documents.

Prosecutors announced on Tuesday that they are investigating a number of executives from Hyundai Syscomm, which makes wireless communications equipment, on suspicions of accepting cash in return for selling stolen information relating to code division multiple access (CDMA) technology to UTStarcom.

(Asia Pulse/Yonhap)

Oct 28, 2004

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