TSMC - The World’s Largest Semiconductor Supplier is Breached

TSMC is the world's largest semiconductor company with the greatest value. The organization was founded in 1987 and is based in Taiwan. The organization is named of the ten most valuable companies in the world today and is a significant superpower in the electronics world. As the need for semiconductor chips increases, the company continues to increase in value. This massive company serves millions of customers overall. 

Even top-tier companies like TSMC aren't safe from cyber attacks. The organization was breached by a Russian-based hacker gang. The gang breached one of TSMC's suppliers and quickly demanded a massive ransom for the information stolen. Get more details about this breach below. 

How Did the Attack Occur?

A Russian-based cybercrime gang hacked into one of the hardware suppliers for TSMC. After gaining a foothold in the test environment servers for the supplier, the gang demanded TSMC pay a ransom of $70 million. It's unclear if the company paid the ransom or not, but TSMC stated that the attack did not interfere with regular operations. We don't yet know exactly how the hackers were able to breach the Kinmax file network, but we do know that TSMC quickly severed its data connections with the organization to protect company files from further attacks. 

What Information Was Viewed or Stolen?

During the attack, the hackers gained access to Kinmax's testing environment, where they got information about the latest software releases and system installation data. Most of the data taken is harmless, but some customer names are included in the files as well. Both Kinmax and TSMC are confident that no personal or harmful data is included in the information leaked from the cyber attack. Much of the file data is software developed for use by customers. This data isn't highly classified and isn't that harmful to the company's everyday operations either. 

How Did TSMC Admit to the Breach?

On Friday, June 30, TSMC confirmed that one of its hardware suppliers was hacked by a Russian cyber gang. The company didn't release an official statement about the data breach, and it won't be sending out individual letters to the victims, but it has spoken with news outlets explaining the situation and what occurred during the attack. 

What Will Become of the Stolen Information?

If the companies are being honest about the data taken from Kinmax, it's likely that the gang will try and sell any information it deems valuable, but not much else can be done with the data. There isn't supposedly enough personal data to harm individuals, making the stolen data less useful for cyber-attacks and identity theft. 

What Should Affected Parties Do in the Aftermath of the Breach?

TSMC assures its customers that their personal information isn't included in the data stolen during the breach. If you believe your data has been compromised, you should monitor your financial accounts and invest in a credit monitoring service to watch and protect your information. TSMC isn't offering any credit monitoring or identity theft services at the moment because there is a reason to suspect personal data was taken in the attack.