Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

11 of 64 comments (clear)

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

    just china sending a message

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

    Instructions unclear, birds flying in my house.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  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
  5. 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.

  6. 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.
  7. 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.