“Taiwan chipmaker TSMC, reeling from a computer virus that shut down several plants over the weekend, is expected to be able to fill orders on time for Apple Inc. as it gears up to release new iPhones later this year,” Debby Wu reports for Bloomberg.
“Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said Monday that full operations have resumed after a variant of the 2017 WannaCry ransomware affected production over the weekend. The infection, which happened when a supplier connected tainted software to TSMC’s network without a virus scan, spread swiftly and hit facilities in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taichung — home to some of the cutting-edge plants that produce Apple’s semiconductors,” Wu reports. “‘My suspicion is that there will be minimal impact on Apple,’ said Nehal Chokshi, an analyst with Maxim Group LLC. The time Apple will have to wait to receive the chips will be extended only by the number of days production was delayed, which is about three days, he added. ‘This is really minor,’ Chokshi said. ‘I don’t think there’s a need to panic from Apple’s perspective or from an investor’s perspective.'”
“Gene Munster, co-founder of Loup Ventures and a long-time Apple watcher, agrees with other analysts that iPhone production is unlikely to be delayed but says the virus incident could affect Apple’s relationship with TSMC,” Wu reports. “‘My sense is that this is an issue for Apple because they’re going to take TSMC’s security problem more seriously than any other company,’ he said. ‘Apple believes so strongly in privacy and security that this is something that could impact their relationship with TSMC.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: TSMC CEO C. C. Wei said Monday that the infected production tool was from an unidentified vendor and that TSMC is overhauling its procedures in the wake of this mistake.
unidentified vendor, now that is a huge security risk even if the incident never happened. Or is this some kind of window dressing of an excuse to hide even bigger problem. I suppose we will never know. Apple should have the option to check the security that is in place in its suppliers work place, if not it should demand such check now thanks to this breach that has taken place
Hmm 🤔. Ransomware is usually the domain of Windows.
Methinks it is about time TSMC switched from Windows to Mac OS.
“Unidentified vendor” is passive language. Passive language is used to hide and obscure stuff. So, “unidentified vendor” could mean that TSMC knows the offending vendor but refuses to identify it because it’s a key vendor to the chip production. Punishing that key vendor would shut down the whole operation.
It was me
Was not!