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Chip Giant TSMC Struggles With Virus Infections at its Factories (engadget.com)
Many of the tech products launching this fall might have just run into production setbacks. From a report: Giant chip manufacturer TSMC has warned that several of its fabrication plants suffered virus infections on August 3rd, disrupting production. Some of these plants recovered in a "short period of time," it said, but others wouldn't resume business as usual for "one day." The company dismissed claims that this was a hack, but didn't initially provide details about the virus or the potential infection path. TSMC promised more information on August 6th.
These factories, and broadly most factories making tech components, run a mishmash of ancient, unpatched copies of Windows, Linux, embedded systems, and PLCs together on a network mostly isolated from the internet. They end up getting contaminated by employees inserting USB drives and installing dictionary software or simply updating industrial software using their dirty drives from home. So itâ(TM)s not likely a cyber attack. Or if it is, itâ(TM)s one deployed in person.
My company worked in one such factory with QSMC (thus anon posting) and our machine got hit with nasty trojans and viruses so many times that eventually we epoxyed caps on all external USB ports and threw a lock on the case. Only then would the machine last more than a month without getting choked out by malware.
Now we only use windows PCs for prototyping and deploy as many locked down embedded systems as we can. Weâ(TM)re also migrating to Linux PCs because other manufacturers (not QSMC) are so tired of this shit that theyâ(TM)ve stopped allowing Windows in their factories at all.
Given a choice between malware outbreak and killer multi-patterning issues I would take the malware outbreak every time. But I would also instantly ban Windows inside the corporate perimeter, it's a simple cost benefit thing. Lord help them if they store primary engineering assets on Windows machines.
It only took a single full day meltdown for the London Stock Exchange to learn this lesson.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.