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A cyber attack has crippled the operations of American chipmaker Microchip Technology Incorporated.
According to an SEC filing, the incident impacted the operations of several of its manufacturing facilities, lowering the capacity they have to meet orders.
“On August 17, 2024, Microchip Technology Incorporated (the ‘company’) detected potentially suspicious activity involving its information technology (‘IT’) systems,” said Microchip Technology.
“Upon detecting the issue, the company began taking steps to assess, contain and remediate the potentially unauthorised activity.
“On August 19, 2024, the company determined that an unauthorised party disrupted the company’s use of certain servers and some business operations.”
The company is currently working to restore its IT systems to normal and has launched an investigation to determine the nature of the incident.
“As the company’s investigation is ongoing, the full scope, nature and impact of the incident are not yet known,” said Microchip Technology.
“As of the date of this filing, the company has not yet determined whether the incident is reasonably likely to materially impact the company’s financial condition or results of operations.”
It is currently unclear what kind of cyber attack occurred; however, the disabling of IT systems suggests that they may be encrypted or compromised, which could indicate a ransomware incident.
However, Cyber Daily has not yet observed any threat actors claiming responsibility for the incident.
Just last year, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea identified a North Korean hacking campaign targeting chip and semiconductor manufacturers.
The hacking campaign lasted from the middle of 2023 until early 2024 and involved attempts to compromise multiple chip manufacturers.
In at least two cases, the hackers were able to exfiltrate data in December 2023 and February 2024, respectively. In both instances, the North Korean threat actor was able to steal “product design drawings” and site photos of the targeted manufacturing facilities.
“The NIS believes the cyber attacks are part of a wider effort by North Korea to kickstart its own semiconductor industry. International sanctions restrict the sale of semiconductors to the rogue nation, while at the same time, North Korea is expanding its satellite and missile development programs – two very high-demand industries when it comes to semiconductors.
“As to the nature of the attacks, the North Korean hackers relied upon stealthy living-off-the-land techniques to evade detection on South Korean networks.”
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