Virus attack shuts down factories of iPhone's sole chipmaker
On Saturday, several factories of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the sole manufacturer of the iPhone's main processor, was shut down following a virus attack. The incident marked the most severe disruption in the company's ongoing efforts to ramp up chipmaking for iPhones. While the problem has been contained, and some factories have restarted production, most affected factories won't recover till at least Sunday.
First time TSMC has been brought down by an attack
"TSMC has been attacked by viruses before, but this is the first time a virus attack has affected our production lines," Chief Financial Officer Lora Ho told Bloomberg News over phone. However, she didn't reveal whether the facilities affected were involved in iPhone chip production.
What is known about the mysterious attack
TSMC said that a number of its fabrication tools had been infected in the attack. As of now, it's unclear who targeted TSMC, which happens to be the world's largest contract manufacturer of chips for giants like Apple and Qualcomm. Notably, the company said that the virus had not been introduced by a hacker, pointing towards a possible inside job.
How does the attack affect TSMC and Apple?
Owing to Lora Ho's silence on information like the attack's effect on the company's revenue, it's unclear as to how the unproductive days would affect the firm. The implications of the attack is also unclear for Apple, which just crossed the $1 trillion market cap mark a couple of days back. Notably, this was largely driven by iPhone sales.
Cybercrime cost businesses $8 trillion over the past five years
According to estimates by the World Economic Forum (WEF), cybercrime, globally, has cost businesses as much as $8 trillion over the last five years.
