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Apple Supplier TSMC Suffers Data Breach, Hackers Demand $70M

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Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company today confirmed to TechCrunch that it recently suffered a data breach. TSMC is responsible for creating all of the A-series and M-series chips used in Apple devices.

Apple-M2-Ultra-Chip.jpg

A TSMC spokesperson said that a "cybersecurity incident" caused data "pertinent to server initial setup and configuration" to leak, but TSMC customer information was not impacted.
"Upon review, this incident has not affected TSMC's business operations, nor did it compromise any TSMC's customer information. After the incident, TSMC has immediately terminated its data exchange with this concerned supplier in accordance with the Company's security protocols and standard operating procedures."
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Data from TSMC was listed on the LockBit ransomware gang's website on Thursday, with LockBit demanding $70 million to prevent it from publishing the stolen data. LockBit has attacked pharmaceutical companies, the UK's Royal Mail, U.S. government websites, and more.

LockBit says that if TSMC does not pay up, it will also publish passwords and logins. The data was stolen from Kinmax Technology, a company that provides IT services like networking, cloud computing, storage, and database management. Kinmax was working with TSMC, and on Thursday, told TSMC that its "internal specific testing environment was attacked," leading to the leak of "system installation preparation."

Other Kinmax partners include Microsoft, Cisco, and VMware, and it is not known if those companies were also impacted.

Article Link: Apple Supplier TSMC Suffers Data Breach, Hackers Demand $70M
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/30/tsmc-data-breach/
MacRumors said:
A TSMC spokesperson said that a "cybersecurity incident" caused data "pertinent to server initial setup and configuration" to leak, but TSMC customer information was not impacted.
Click to expand...
Doesn't sound like anything of value was compromised and that operations were impacted. But it's surely annoying to have it occur in the first place. Yes people at Kinmax Technology are not looking good.
 
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Why do we, as a global society, continue to tolerate the existence of these professional hackers? It’s time to get medieval on their asses. And don’t tell me they’re too hard to find. We are simply unwilling to dedicate the resources to do so.
 
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Should’ve required their business partners to use biometrics like touchID/faceID and multi-factor identification instead of simple passwords but hey what do I know, they’re only a global leader in chip manufacturing
 
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Biro said:
Why do we, as a global society, continue to tolerate the existence of these professional hackers? It’s time to get medieval on their asses. And don’t tell me they’re too hard to find. We are simply unwilling to dedicate the resources to do so.
Click to expand...
We already know a lot of these hackers are in countries like Russia, China, and N. Korea. What are we going to do, ask them to please kindly extradite them to the U.S. to stand trial? 🤣

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rpmurray said:
... a "cybersecurity incident" caused data "pertinent to server initial setup and configuration" to leak ...

Why would this be worth $70M?
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It's not worth 70M. They demands 70M, that's a big difference. They could say 1B or 100B all they like, but TSMC won't pay them anything.
 
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rpmurray said:
... a "cybersecurity incident" caused data "pertinent to server initial setup and configuration" to leak ...

Why would this be worth $70M?
Click to expand...
Think of the rock and hard place they're in.

Likely it's other company's IP in jeopardy. Those customers are worth a lot more than 70M.
 
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