(Update) Ex-Tokyo Electron Unit Worker Linked to Data Theft

   Taipei, Aug. 7 (Jiji Press)--Japanese chipmaking equipment maker Tokyo Electron Ltd. said Thursday that a former employee of its Taiwanese subsidiary was involved in the illegal acquisition of confidential information of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
   According to Taiwanese media, the former employee joined the subsidiary after leaving TSMC.
   Taiwanese newspaper United Daily News reported that the former employee met an acquaintance, an engineer at TSMC, at a cafe, asked the engineer to display confidential data on a laptop and took numerous photos of the information.
   The target of the theft was information on TSMC's cutting-edge chips with a circuit line width of 2 nanometers, which the Taiwanese company plans to start mass producing as early as this year.
   Taiwanese public prosecutors conducted searches of the subsidiary in the city of Hsinchu in Taiwan's northern area.

(2025/08/07-21:45)