Apple chip manufacturer TSMC factories infect virus, several factories go offline

According to AppleInsider, Apple’s iPhone and iPad chip foundry TSMC were attacked by computer viruses, and several factories were shut down on Friday.  After the factory equipment was infected with the virus, several TSMC  factories have been discontinued. For TSMC and Apple, the timing of the  chip manufacturing plant’s production suspension is horrible, because  TSMC is currently working hard to produce chips for the new iPhone that  Apple plans to release this fall.

TSMC  has already controlled the spread of the virus, and some of the  equipment in the affected factories have resumed production. Other stuff  will not continue production until Sunday. Due to the long chip  manufacturing process, disruptions in the production process can result  in lost output for several weeks.Although the  accident appeared to be a targeted attack, TSMC said the virus attack  was not related to network intrusion. This is the first time that the  TSMC production line has been shut down due to a virus attack.Lora Ho, a chief financial officer of TSMC, told Bloomberg that “TSMC has been attacked by viruses before. But this is the first time a virus attack has affected our production lines.“

TSMC did not comment on the production losses and affected  customers. Traditionally, at the beginning of August each year, most of  TSMC’s production capacity was used to produce A-series chips for Apple.For various iPhone components,  Apple usually purchases from some suppliers, but the A-series chips are  an exception – currently only a TSMC company supplies. The new iPhone  released in 2018 may be equipped with an A12 chip.