[Contribution] A warning issued by the Coupang incident... How companies can recognize ‘digital intent’

Recently, there has been a series of personal information leaks from large platform companies. However, the essence of this incident is not a simple matter of external intrusion, but that 'information managed internally was leaked.' This point suggests the importance of an internal control system for overall corporate information.

In the case of corporate officials, this incident should serve as an opportunity to have the same level of alertness not only to personal information but also to 'technology and trade secret leaks', which are core assets. This is because, just as personal information leaks destroy trust, technology leaks that occur silently also pose a risk that threatens the existence of companies. In fact, according to data from the National Police Agency, technology leaks are frequent, with 668 cases of violation of the Industrial Technology Protection Act detected over the past five years, deepening management's concerns.

The strongest legal basis for sanctioning such leaks is Article 18 of the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act. According to this provision, a person who uses trade secrets in a foreign country or knowingly leaks trade secrets for the purpose of obtaining illegal profits or causing damage to a company may be punished by imprisonment for up to 15 years or by a fine of up to 1.5 billion won.

However, the biggest difficulty in practice is proving ‘intention of leakage’, which is a crime requirement. This is because most suspects deny intentionality by protesting that “I only backed it up because I needed it for work” or “I failed to delete it by mistake.”

At this time, digital forensics goes beyond simple data restoration and becomes the key to completely reconstructing the ‘digital behavior patterns’ of former employees. Although users may be able to delete visible files, it is virtually impossible to manipulate the 'metadata' and 'system artifacts' recorded by the operating system. Forensic experts organically connect logs of when files were deleted and when large amounts of data were moved to a personal cloud or USB, and scientifically prove that the 'accidental mistake' claimed by the suspect was in fact a 'carefully planned export.'

However, what must be preceded by a technical approach is securing procedural legitimacy. If you are in a hurry to deal with a leak and arbitrarily recover data or search an employee's personal device without legal review, you may run the risk of being counter-sued for violating the Personal Information Protection Act or detecting electronic records, etc. Furthermore, we must be aware that data obtained without going through legal procedures may be denied evidence during the investigation and trial process according to the 'rule of exclusion of illegally collected evidence'.

Therefore, the essence of responding to technology leaks is not simply data restoration, but securing evidence that can be used in court. The integrity of the recovered data must be maintained to prove that it is the same as the original, and the 'chain of custody' from collection to analysis and submission must be fully explained. Furthermore, it is essential to legally reinterpret the fragmented digital traces and complete a logical link that proves the intentionality of the leak.

Ultimately, a successful response to a technology leak must be an integrated response system that combines technical analysis and legal risk management. Due process must be followed under the legal advice of a lawyer from the initial stage of evidence collection, and an organic system must be in place that can directly lead to effective legal action, such as applying for a temporary injunction or filing a criminal complaint, as soon as the analysis results are derived. Only when the law refines the traces discovered by technology into a powerful weapon can it fully protect its precious intellectual property from technology leakage crimes that threaten the existence of companies.

Small Business Team

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[Contribution] Warning issued by the Coupang incident... How companies can recognize ‘digital intent’ (link)