The employee had previously worked for SK Hynix and had access to internal company information as part of the job. According to details surrounding the case, the employee obtained confidential documents from an SK Hynix internal server. The SK Hynix case illustrates one of the biggest challenges facing semiconductor companies: protecting information from people who already have legitimate access to it. The case involving the former SK Hynix employee also demonstrates the international nature of the semiconductor industry. For SK Hynix and other semiconductor manufacturers, protecting intellectual property has become almost as important as developing it.