Taiwanese engineer uses hidden camera in chip snack

A Taiwanese engineer was accused of hiding a 360-degree camera in a snack package to record confidential documents of chip company Nanya. According to Tom's Hardware, on August 13, the prosecutor of the New Taipei Procuracy, Taiwan island prosecuted Yeh Yen-wei, a former senior engineer in the Advanced Process Development department of semiconductor company Nanya Technology. This person is accused of copying 32 confidential documents containing DRAM memory chip manufacturing technology to transfer to a Chinese company. Records show that Yeh joined Nanya in 2022. By 2025, this person began contacting recruitment agencies in China to look for job opportunities with higher income. In mid-February, Yeh submitted his resignation letter and planned to leave Nanya in mid-April. During the time preparing to leave, on March 28, April 4 and April 5, taking advantage of weekend shifts or late night and early morning hours, Yeh broke into Nanya's restricted work area. To bypass the security forces, this engineer hid the Insta360 X4 Air camera inside a snack bag. After passing the checkpoint, Yeh used a licensed personal account to log into Nanya's virtual machine system, open internal research and development documents, then take pictures and record videos. According to LTN, despite carefully preparing the script and disguising, this engineer made a "fatal" mistake by forgetting to turn off the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals on the camera. Nanya's network security monitoring system quickly detects unusual radio signals inside strict security areas. The security team checked the signal location with the access card swipe log and system activity history, thereby accurately localizing the suspect. Nanya immediately reported the incident to the authorities. Yeh Yen-wei was prosecuted under the Trade Secrets Act for illegal copying of trade secrets for the purpose of use abroad, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. However, digital inspection results on the seized device showed that there was no evidence that Yeh Yen-wei successfully sent data to the outside world. This may be a mitigating factor that helps the former engineer escape the maximum sentence.