TSMC Fabs Offline, Hit by a Virus, Production Impacts Confirmed

[btarunr]

TSMC is the most popular semiconductor foundry, has been called the "savior of fabless chipmakers," and is also one of Taiwan's most valuable companies. It's also the principal foundry for chipmakers such as NVIDIA and AMD (GPUs). Its most valuable production, however, is that of Apple's A-series application processors that drive the main breadwinners of the company - iPhones. Imagine the cataclysm unleashed if a virus were to spread in the company that contract-manufactures extremely complex chip designs. According to Reuters, that cataclysm is upon TSMC.

According to DigiTimes, a WannaCry-variant ransomware infected not just workstations at TSMC, but also certain fab machines (which are driven by computers). The infection has caused a shutdown of several of TSMC's fabs, including its high-volume 12-inch ones. These machines apparently run on unpatched Windows 7, probably because they're connected to a private network instead of the Internet. TSMC has tasked all of its human resources to disinfect the affected machines. The company hopes to have its fabs fully operational by Monday (13th August), but not before the downtime affects the supply-chains Apple and other high-value clients. An estimated $179 million is wiped from TSMC's Q3 revenues due to this downtime. Although it could affect shipments of APs to Apple, impact on the inventories of Apple products could be minimal, according to market analysts. It remains to be seen if TSMC's other clients see similarly minimal impact; or if TSMC is prioritizing a trillion-dollar client.



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[dj-electric]

Can't believe such places still use Windows...

They do... right?

 

[EntropyZ]

This is to scare other places to downgrade to 10? Nice try. But work is all those machines do, so I couldn't care less.

Edit: Exactly... Why are they using this P-OS.

 

[carex]

that magnitude of a company hit by a virus ,come on..... other day it will be ransomware..... another day it will be a bug and this and that so on.....

see how these companies easily LIE in your face....and how you easily believe such nonsense....they simply needs an excuse nothing else

 

[qcmadness]

AMD GPUs are now fabbed in GF NY Fab 8.
Only the semi-custom chips (PS4 (Pro) and Xbox One (X)) are fabbed by TSMC.

 

[newtekie1]

Can't believe such places still use Windows...

They do... right?

Edit: Exactly... Why are they using this P-OS.

The software required to do their work likely only runs on Windows.

 

[kalstrand]

They are using that old OS because that is what their equipment can run on. We have a computerized saw that runs on a Win98 SE PC and a CNC plasma table that runs on a WinXP PC because newer versions are not compatible with our older automation equipment. We don't have those machines connected to a network but then we don't have to turn out the volume TSMC does.

 

[EntropyZ]

that magnitude of a company hit by a virus ,come on..... other day it will be ransomware..... another day it will be a bug and this and that so on.....

see how these companies easily LIE in your face....and how you easily believe such nonsense....they simply needs an excuse nothing else

Out loud I almost said "fake news" to myself.

 

[coonbro]

well as reported falling prices . now this is part of the price fixing agenda plan . maybe plant caught on fire is now too obvious so plan B plants computer systems under attack . now we'll get those profit loosing price drops back under control . nice and legal like .

I joked aboutn how this works out in 2 earlier threads and now here it is

well as reported falling prices . now this is part of the price fixing agenda plan . maybe plant caught on fire is now too obvious so plan B plants computer systems under attack . now we'll get those profit loosing price drops back under control . nice and legal like . I'm sure more to come . I wonder if they blame Russian hackers as well ? watch the rest get hit as well and stall production and the price dropping glut becomes a shortage and profits go up .

I joked about how this works out in 2 earlier threads and now here it is

 

[progste]

Okay, who downloaded porn on the 7nm workstation?

 

[eidairaman1]

Jacking the prices up I see

 

[oxidized]

An excuse to delay 7nm?

 

[Gasaraki]

that magnitude of a company hit by a virus ,come on..... other day it will be ransomware..... another day it will be a bug and this and that so on.....

see how these companies easily LIE in your face....and how you easily believe such nonsense....they simply needs an excuse nothing else

So they lied just so they can make their own shares drop. OK... Go put on your tin foil hat.

 

[StrayKAT]

So they lied just so they can make their own shares drop. OK... Go put on your tin foil hat.

It's certainly entertaining, if true.

 

[Fx]

Okay, who downloaded porn on the 7nm workstation?

LMAO. Coffee and this just made my morning better

 

[RejZoR]

When you can't blame floods anymore to ramp up the prices, use viruses...

 

[Divide Overflow]

China must have been very displeased at them.

 

[kastriot]

What a poor excuse lol

 

[BadFrog]

Don’t think this was an attempt at raising pricing... Aren’t they just a huge job shop anyways? Relying on their customers to give them the designs so they can make the product?

 

[Frick]

that magnitude of a company hit by a virus ,come on..... other day it will be ransomware..... another day it will be a bug and this and that so on.....

see how these companies easily LIE in your face....and how you easily believe such nonsense....they simply needs an excuse nothing else

Every large company (and everyone really, even the tiny six-man outfit I work for got ransomware, somehow) has to be wary of things like this, because they are big targets. It's not at all unlikely this is true. Here's an article from 2016 predicting ransomware hitting larger companies for larger sums.

In a way it's good it's just ransomware (if that is what it is). If it was a directed thing in the vein of Stuxnet I assume some serious damage could be done.

 

[R-T-B]

that magnitude of a company hit by a virus ,come on..... other day it will be ransomware..... another day it will be a bug and this and that so on.....

see how these companies easily LIE in your face....and how you easily believe such nonsense....they simply needs an excuse nothing else

So they hurt their own stock price for... what? Sorry the fake news bandwagon needs to go home today, it is drunk.

This is why patches and service packs ARE important.

 

[coonbro]

hurt the stock ? if they fend off lower dropping prices it don't when there able to price gouge /fix to increase / inflate there profits . look at how many times these guys been in court and accused of price fixing . there experts at it

if there stock falls all that would do if give the board members and there fat cats a cheap fattening of there own portfolios buying there own stock and a deprecated price . its win- win for the rich guys at the top

 

[newtekie1]

So they hurt their own stock price for... what? Sorry the fake news bandwagon needs to go home today, it is drunk.

Tbis is why patches and service packs ARE important.

Exactly. There a quite a few big companies that have been hit with this ransomware, or variants of it.

If they wanted to limit production, they would just do it, admitting you're vulnerable to web attacks as an excuse is stupid.

 

[coonbro]

...lol,,,, ya , its the excuse when there dragged in to court for price fixing use hacked as there get out of jail card and all's forgiven [ with a little profit sharing to the courts [

 

[Frick]

...lol,,,, ya , its the excuse when there dragged in to court for price fixing use hacked as there get out of jail card and all's forgiven [ with a little profit sharing to the courts [

Yes, crime is a corporate conspiracy.