Story 2015-10-27 RSP8 South Korea signs US cyber theft pledge

South Korea signs US cyber theft pledge

by
in legal on (#RSP8)
On Friday the Obama administration secured a "cyber theft pledge" from South Korea.

"no country should conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, trade secrets, or other confidential business information with the intent of providing competitive advantages to its companies or commercial sectors;"

The first of its kind. Whether it will hold is another issue. While South Korean operations are conducted at a fraction of the scale of their Chinese neighbors, ROK spies still remain busy.

From 2007 to 2012, the Justice Department brought charges in at least five major cases involving South Korean corporate espionage against American companies. Among the accused was a leading South Korean manufacturer that engaged in what prosecutors described as a "multi-year campaign" to steal the secret to DuPont's Kevlar, which is used to make bulletproof vests...

All of the cases involved corporate employees, not government officials, but the technologies that were stolen had obvious military applications. South Korean corporate spies have targeted thermal imaging devices and prisms used for guidance systems on drones...

But South Korea has gone after commercial tech, as well. A 2005 report published by Cambridge University Press identified South Korea as one of five countries, along with China and Russia, that had devoted "the most resources to stealing Silicon Valley technology."

http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2015/10/south-korea-signs-up-to-cyber-theft.html
Reply 2 comments

Why (Score: 1)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-10-27 21:37 (#RT3G)

I cannot see a good reason why they agreed to this.

Re: Why (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-10-27 23:01 (#RTAE)

Neither can I, particularly since the US intelligence apparatus has reportedly been used to provide a competitive advantage for US businesses over others.