Late last night iPhone chip supplier, TSMC, was forced to halt production in multiple factories due to a “computer virus.” This news breaks just as TSMC is beginning to ramp up production for the new iPhone models coming later this year.
TSMC has already confirmed that “a number of its fabrication tools had been infected,” but they’ve already resumed production at a couple of locations. Several more of the company’s factories won’t begin production again until at least Sunday. The damage done to each factory appears to vary based on location. Some were hit harder than others by the attack.
TSMC’s chief financial officer (CFO) released a statement to Bloomberg regarding the incident, also mentioning that this isn’t the first time the company has been hit by a virus 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 by phone.
“Certain factories returned to normal in a short period of time, and we expect the others will return to normal in one day,” the company said in its Saturday statement.
There was no mention from the CFO whether products like the iPhone would be affected or what problems this could cause for the Taiwanese company’s revenue.