Samsung Data Leak from Employee Use of ChatGPT
Samsung engineers uploaded internal documents and confidential source code to ChatGPT in 2023 to speed up work and testing, resulting in a data leak that the company could not recover or control.
What happened
In 2023, Samsung engineers uploaded internal documents and confidential source code to ChatGPT to speed up work processes and testing.
The data were transferred to external servers from which Samsung could not recover them and had no control over removal of the sensitive content.
Reported impact
The data leak resulted in loss of control over confidential information.
Following the incident, Samsung prohibited its employees from using ChatGPT.
Index analysis
According to ESET cybersecurity analysis, generative solutions such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude provide fast and effective assistance in daily work, but can lead to significant security and data protection problems if companies do not regulate their use.
Shadow AI use creates risk because organizations lack visibility into what tools employees use and what data they share, allowing business-critical information to escape company control.
Governance controls
Samsung prohibited employees from using ChatGPT after the incident.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.