Tokyo police will start investigation on an alleged leak of Toshiba’s memory chip technology to a South Korean firm, which is reportedly Japan’s first criminal probe into a technology leak to a company located overseas.
According to Yomiuri newspaper, a warrant has also been issued to detain ex-engineer at a Toshiba-affiliated chip manufacturer, who was alleged of illegally offering technical information to SK Hynix.
The publisher added that the ex-Toshiba employee offered data related to the company’s NAND flash memory technology to Hynix after the commencement of his employment tenure at the South Korean firm.
Further, the country’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said it was extremely vital for Japan to guard its advanced technology from being stolen outside.
Being the major source of profit for Toshiba, NAND memory chips are employed to save data in smartphones and tablets.
As part of efforts to foray into enterprise and client solid state drives businesses, Toshiba acquired solid-state drives (SSD) maker OCZ Technology Group, which would allow it to deal with the storage challenges experienced by both client and enterprise customers.
