Chinese spies steal trade secrets ASML

Het Financieele Dagblad published about this based on its own research. It would be the most extensive espionage ever carried out at a Dutch company.

Source codes, software and pricing strategies
ASML has revealed that the theft took place at a small part of the company in Silicon Valley. There, the chip machine manufacturer makes software programs for machine optimization. "There is no blueprint on the street that you can build a lithography machine with," ASML said. According to the Financieele Dagblad, source codes, software and pricing strategies were allegedly captured by high-ranking research employees. These employees had ties to China's Ministry of Science and Technology.

XTAL
The captured company information was allegedly provided to XTAL, a competitor of ASML. XTAL has been fined $223 million in California for this. The company, which was founded in 2014, would receive financial support from China to strengthen its Chinese position in the chip market. ASML commented that corporate espionage is of all times: "We can never completely prevent it, but we have already taken action to make it much more difficult. Company information is segmented. Employees cannot access everything." ASML also refers to agreements between China and the EU to better respect trade secrets. "We have yet to see that reflected in proper laws and case law as well, but it is definitely very encouraging."

This news item can also be found in the Data Breach file.