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Chip Giant TSMC Struggles With Virus Infections at its Factories (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the call-IT dept.

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.

35 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. not a hack by iamagloworm · · Score: 2

    just china sending a message

    1. Re: not a hack by tanghunterpoon · · Score: 1

      My, you really ARE stupid...

  2. Ditch Windows! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    C'mon, folks. Ditch Windows already!

    1. Re:Ditch Windows! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

      Instructions unclear, birds flying in my house.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:Ditch Windows! by HiThere · · Score: 1

      You don't know that. It could have been an attack using Meltdown or Spectre, which is indifferent to the OS you are using. Why didn't you say "Ditch Intel", that would make as much sense.

      Perhaps we'll have better info tomorrow.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    3. Re:Ditch Windows! by Tough+Love · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You don't know that.

      You do know that. The few and far between cases where Linux gets exploited tend to receive gleeful and widespread press coverage of the name and shame kind. Causing Linux guys to double down and work twice as hard to make that not happen again. Never perfect, but undeniably damn good.

      When the exploit vector isn't named in the article, you know damn well what it was.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    4. Re:Ditch Windows! by HiThere · · Score: 1

      It's a reasonable guess, but it's a guess.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    5. Re:Ditch Windows! by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      It's a reasonable guess, but it's a guess.

      It is a guess, but it's a damn good guess.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  3. A bunch of phone manufacturers are happy! by williamyf · · Score: 2

    I am certain that this is a small glitch, and will be resolved quite fast.

    But nonetheless, it will serve as the perfect excuse for all sorts of manufacturers to either justify that the phones arrived late masking their own incompetence, or to slightly jack up the prices...

    Ah, good times!

    --
    *** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
    1. Re:A bunch of phone manufacturers are happy! by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.
    2. Re:A bunch of phone manufacturers are happy! by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      According to Techcrunch the TSMC virus episode was a vicious attack from China

      Not quite right. According to Techcrunch, cyber attacks from China have been increasing. Not a surprise. But Techcrunch did not directly finger China for this one. Even if the Chinese government did it, which seems totally plausible, TSMC shares part of the blame for allowing Windows machines get on their network. Totally unbelievable for IT to be unaware that Windows is the primary attack surface.

      To be sure, many or most of those IT guys are Windows sysadmins with a vested interest in keeping the status quo no matter what the cost to the company. Execs should get out of bed and show those guys the door immediately. (Google let them stay and retrain after the Chinese gov got caught penetrating Googleplex by way of Windows. Now you have to get approval from a VP to put a Windows machine on the network. Google does their business on Ubuntu and MacOS now.)

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  4. Industrial Strenght by B.Stolk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lemme guess... ms windows?

    Maybe a shop like that should always run an industrial strength OS?
    (Read: Unix)

    --
    http://www.stolk.org/tlctc
    1. Re: Industrial Strenght by astrofurter · · Score: 1

      "big metal rig"

      Is that like a lathe, or an oil drilling platform, or something?

    2. Re:Industrial Strenght by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      My home shop runs on MS-DOS and my work files are plain text files.
      No Windows, no random executables, no networking, no problems.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  5. First clue was by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    AC/DC playing in the background

  6. Who does control you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Inmho, the backdoors, the spectre/meltdown variants, the cyberweapons that had the U.S. three letter agencies, etc. could be the responsible of facilitating the infections of viruses in the factories of TSMC.

    I remembered it, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    My new question is: why is TSMC being attacked?

    1. Re:Who does control you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Inmho, the backdoors, the spectre/meltdown variants, the cyberweapons that had the U.S. three letter agencies, etc. could be the responsible of facilitating the infections of viruses in the factories of TSMC.

      I remembered it, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      My new question is: why is TSMC being attacked?

      Give me a break. The problem is that they have these machines on the internet for some unknown reason, and even worse, they seem to be running Windows.

      Anyone that has ever done any kind of sysadmin work knows that a machine plugged into the internet is under attack all the time.

  7. Probably Intel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Who are butthurt that they can't reach 7nm in time.

  8. Mission critical? by Teun · · Score: 1

    Mission critical ops on Windows???
    As shareholder I'd consult a lawyer.

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  9. Corporate sabotage? by WorBlux · · Score: 1

    Is someone over at Intel getting desperate?

  10. USB Drives and Outdated Windows Installs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:USB Drives and Outdated Windows Installs by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wow, it is posts like yours that make it worth wading through all the sludge.

      Now we only use windows PCs for prototyping

      Right, a lot of good engineering software runs only on Windows, but you don't need a Windows PC to run it, virtualization is highly effective and seamless these days. You do need a Windows license but only the most basic and the cost is trivial.

      Beyond that, a lot of engineering tools come from small coding shops. Just pay for a Linux port. The big boys are already on Linux (BTW, more than a little interesting that ARM shows up in the selected support category.)

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:USB Drives and Outdated Windows Installs by guyniraxn · · Score: 2

      You are correct in the mish-mash of operating systems found on semiconductor tools in production. Though TSMC has very strict policies against USB drives being used in their fabs. Getting caught with one as a contractor means being banned from all TSMC fabs for life. Employees have more leeway but they do need to justify why they would be using one at all. It is more likely something that was spread over the network as all tools are connected for automated host control. Keep in mind, there are still semiconductor capital equipment makers shipping new tools running Windows XP.

  11. The website is down by Gabest · · Score: 1

    Somebody clicked the "Recompute Base Encryption Key Hash Button" ... FAKE A VIRUS ATTACK!

  12. Re:So proud of our country by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    What, Air Force One doesn't have a bar?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  13. Re:So proud of our country by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    TSMC is NOT US, but Taiwan.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  14. Re:So proud of our country by greenwow · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with Gary Busey? He's a national treasure.

  15. Re: So proud of our country by astrofurter · · Score: 1

    President Donald J TRUMP kicked my dog!!

  16. Exactly by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

    Some idiot probably opened an email attachment and hello ransomware!

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:Exactly by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Some idiot running Window probably opened an email attachment and hello ransomware!

      FTFY. You know it's true.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re: Exactly by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      In Windows, you probably didn't even need to open the attachment.

    3. Re: Exactly by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      In fact, with the latest version of Windows the security is so bad that you don't even need to receive the infected email!

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  17. Obligatory ditch Windows comment by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    Obligatory: ditch Windows for Linux or at least MacOS inside the corporate perimeter like Google did. Whatever the perceived value of Windows, it just is not worth the never ending parade of fiascos such as this.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  18. It's probably China by DMJC · · Score: 1

    Most likely the hack was being done by the Chinese government looking to catch up on CPU manufacturing technology. Taiwan operates as an independent nation and the Chinese have made it very clear that they intend to retake the island and are putting plans in motion to make it happen. Economic warfare against Taiwan by mainland China makes sense. Additionally China has made massive leaps in catching up to the USA with CPU manufacturing but is still behind on die process. Hacking TSMC would give the Chinese CPU designers a leg up.

  19. Windows got Viral ? by stooo · · Score: 1

    Go with Windows, Get Virus....
    Get a Penguin, boost your engine.

    --
    aaaaaaa