Ex-ASML employee sentenced to three years' imprisonment for sharing company secrets with Russia

An ex-ASML employee has been sentenced to three years' imprisonment for sharing company secrets with a contact in Russia. According to a post on the Netherlands' judiciary website, De Rechtspraak (machine translation), the defendant copied information from ASML and NXP computer systems for his contact and accessed information specifically for this purpose. However, the sentence was reduced in length, from the four years sought by the prosecution, as there was no proof that the man acted for financial gain.

The importance of ASML to the world’s semiconductor industry cannot be overstated. This Dutch tech company makes the most advanced lithography machines available, crucial to the likes of TSMC, Samsung, and Intel in striving for chip production at the finest scales – and reaping the density, performance, and efficiency advantages of advanced processes.

Russia is a relative tech minnow in the context of ASML’s pedigree, so it would naturally be interested in gaining access to some of the proprietary knowledge and technologies that are kept from the public domain. The unnamed ex-employee is said to have copied confidential files from both ASML and NXP over a period spanning several years.

We aren’t told the full extent of the intellectual property theft in the source report. It is indicated that specifics shared by the accused/imprisoned man were largely to do with designing microchip production lines.

Investigators found a “large amount of files from ASML and NXP, which were found on various data carriers at his home.” It was judged to be implausible that the ex-employee needed these files for his work, and many of the files were beyond the scope of the activities for which he was employed.

The ex-employee was also accused of ‘computer trespassing’ on systems with the sole purpose of providing technical assistance to his Russian contact. The defendant is claimed to have stated (machine translated) that “I had kept files from ASML for my own use... Whether those files were allowed to go to Russia? I did not ask myself that.” Later admitting, “Yes, I gave advice.”

Information 'of great value' to Russia

Of course, such espionage should be punishable, potentially with incarceration, at any time. But Rotterdam District Court’s judgment applied internationally agreed security laws brought in, back in 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea. From that time, it became an offense to provide advice and share technology with Russia.

The judge ruling on this case noted that, even though the information shared with the Russian contact may be old or outdated, it would still be “of great value to a country with a (much) lower level of knowledge,” like Russia. Moreover, we know Russia will not shy away from acquiring any technology, by any means, to fortify its war machine.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.