A Samsung Electronics employee has apparently been arrested. The staff member was allegedly stealing trade secrets and some confidential information regarding the company, which is conducting an investigation into the matter right now.

The South Korean tech giant confirmed this news earlier this week. Reportedly, the employee might have take photographs of confidential information regarding the brand’s chipmaking processes. While Samsung stated that investigation is underway, it did not reveal any other finer details regarding this matter. A company spokesperson stated that “The person is under investigation for violating information protection rules. But it is not yet known the type of information compromised and whether the person handed it to a third party.”

As of right now, this employee was set to quit Samsung Electronics is accused of taking pictures of a computer screen that had sensitive information related to the brand’s chip fabrication process while he was working from home. He was taking a picture since the database system blocks screen capture, prompting him to use his smartphone to record the confidential information.

As per a media report, the employee had managed to photograph hundreds of trade secrets, which hints that the employee was likely taking these pictures to sell to a competitor. Notably, the chip fabrication information may have even been related to advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, which could be related to either its cutting edge 5nm or even 3nm chips. Unfortunately, that is all the information we have to go on as of right now, so stick around for more updates.

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A new report has revealed that Oppo has recently been laying off staff. The information arrives after its merger with OnePlus, which might affect both firms including the joint software updates as the company even downsized its ColorOS team.

According to a Bloomberg report (Via 9To5Google), people close to the matter revealed that the Chinese smartphone maker had to cut its staff by 20 percent following its merger with OnePlus. Notably, the lay offs included the department team working on ColorOS software as well as other “device teams”. So while the merger was meant to streamline software updates by building OxygenOS on top of ColorOS, the downsizing might affect their original plans.

Although, it is unknown how exactly this would affect the company’s ColorOS development overall since the brand reportedly cut redundant positions. The Bloomberg report added that the company is currently struggling with chip shortages along with “economic shocks” caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, Oppo had moved to aggressively expand and even compete with Apple in the premium market segment, but this is what led to the creation of the the aforementioned redundant positions.

Apart from the ColorOS team, the brand had to cut staff in other departments as well. This includes its IoT (internet of things) division and some parts of smartwatches and earbuds teams. At the moment, the impacts of these lay offs have yet to be felt as the company has just released its first details of its ColorOS skin based on Android 12 operating system that will roll out in October 2021.

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The US Government is planning on enforcing a visa restriction on employees of Huawei and other Chinese companies that are based around technology. This move arrives just a while after the UK banned Huawei from its 5G infrastructure and adds to the pressure the Chinese tech giant is facing from the west.

Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, said that his department will target the employed of Huawei and other Chinese firms that the official claims are responsible for human rights abuses in its home country and abroad. The allegations are quite serious and are likely influenced by its negative stance against the Chinese government.

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The Secretary of State told reporters that “The UK joins the United States and now many other democracies becoming nations free of untrusted 5G vendors. The United States has a Huawei announcement of our own today. The State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally.”

Notably, this statement arrives just a day after US President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and an executive order, which removes the preferential trade status of the city. This follows after what Pompeo considers to be an undermining of Hong Kong’s autonomy by China, which warranted this policy response.

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(Via)

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The effect of the coronavirus outbreak on businesses has started to emerge. Companies around the world have halted production in their manufacturing facilities to fight the further spread of the virus. Due to this, their estimated profit margin has dropped for this year, which has now led them to lower the wages of their employees. A fresh report from South Korea says Samsung and LG have already finalized a lower pay raise for its workers this year.

Samsung and LG are some of the largest manufacturers of consumer electronics products. They have businesses in every nook and corner of the world. When such large companies shut down their manufacturing facilities, the loss they incur is too high. COVID-19 pandemic has created such a tense situation for them and as a result, both the companies have decided to lower the pay raise for its employees this year, reports The Korea Herald.

In 2018 and 2019, Samsung’s pay raise for its workers was 3.5 percent. But now, this year, it has been decremented to 2.5 percent, which is exactly 1 percent lesser than the previous years. However, the raise is the salary of the employees may vary as it depends on an individual’s performance. The above-mentioned number is the standard base salary raise. On the other hand, LG workers received a 4.3 percent pay raise last year, whereas the amount will be decreased by 0.5 percent, down to 3.8 percent in 2020. 

Additionally, the report also says that the management and trade union of both the companies have confirmed to agree upon the change in pay raise. Thus, it is official that Samsung and LG will be indeed paying out a lower amount of salary to their employees this year.

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(Source, Via)

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