TSMC confirms hacker obtained employee data and demanded 3 BTC, says internal systems uncompromised.
According to Jimian News, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) responded on November 12 to reports of a hacker attempting to sell an alleged 6.9GB database containing 46,000 TSMC employee records on an underground forum for 3 BTC; TSMC confirmed that personal data belonging to certain current and former employees was exposed without authorization, and noted that initial investigations link the leaked records to the system of third-party cloud service providers, rather than to a breach of TSMC's internal IT infrastructure. The chipmaker stressed that manufacturing operations and customer data remained completely unaffected, adding that it is notifying affected staff and working closely with cloud providers, law enforcement and external cybersecurity firms to investigate the breach.