TSMC Becomes Victim of A Massive Data Breach, Hackers Demand $70 Million

Just recently, it has come to light that TSMC, the semiconductor manufacturing giant, has been victim of a large-scale data breach. The company plays a key role in the tech industry, making silicon for Apple, AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and even Intel.

TSMC $70 Million Data Breach

LockBit confirmed that it has successfully attacked TSMC over on the dark web. The hacking group is known to routinely update its list of victims, which now includes the giant. The worst part is that TSMC is forced to pay a ransom of $70 Million, which is nothing to scoff at. Reportedly, this is one of the most enormous ransoms ever demanded.

Surprisingly, the LockBit provided little to no information regarding the legitimacy of this attack. The attack description also does not seem to provide any sample data. It is very possible that LockBit is simply throwing softballs, but that is yet to be proven. The group wrote, and we quote;

“In the case of payment refusal, also will be published points of entry into the network and passwords and logins company,”

LockBit

TSMC’s Response

Furthermore, the report suggests that an unnamed TSMC spokesperson has seemingly confirmed that an attack took place. Going into the specifics, the spokesperson says that a quote-unquote ‘cybersecurity incident’ occurred at Kinmax Technology, TSMC’s IT hardware supplier.

“Upon review, this incident has not affected TSMC’s business operations, nor did it compromise any TSMC’s customer information,”

TSMC Spokesperson

TSMC outright denied the allegations of any user data being stolen. In fact, the leaked content is said to contain ‘system installation preparation’ material. Moreover, Kinmax hinted in a statement that TSMC was likely not the sole affectee of this attack.

Kinmax currently partners with the likes of NVIDIA, HPE, Cisco, Microsoft etcetera. It is probable that we are still yet to discover the complete scale of this breach.

Source: TechCrunch