Operations resume after virus attack shuts down Taiwanese maker of Apple chips
Taipei — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) blamed a variant of the 2017 WannaCry ransomware for the unprecedented shutdown of several plants, as it ramps up chip making for Apple’s next iPhones. Full operations have resumed and the malware will reduce revenue this quarter by no more than 2%, down from an initial estimate of roughly 3%, CEO CC Wei said on Monday. The company faces shipment delays from the infection, which happened when a supplier installed tainted software without a virus scan. It spread swiftly and hit facilities in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taichung — home to some of the cutting-edge plants that produce Apple’s semiconductors. TSMC intends to make up for the lost time as it heads into the critical holiday season, Apple’s most important quarter. But Wei wouldn’t discuss the impact on its customers or where the malware variant may have originated, nor how it made it past the company’s security protocols — a black eye for a corporation that prides itself on its t...
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