(Bloomberg) — Microchip Technology Inc. said Tuesday that its servers were hit by a cyberattack that has forced the US chipmaker to shut some of its systems and scale back operations.
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The company, which supplies chips to the US defense industry, detected suspicious activity involving its information technology systems on Aug. 17, according to a regulatory filing. The company determined two days later that “certain servers and some business operations” had been breached.
The attack comes as nations around the world are competing for chip-market dominance, both for national security purposes and to avoid the supply-chain nightmares that surfaced during the pandemic. Just two months ago, the Taiwanese chip-parts manufacturer GlobalWafers Co. was struck by a cyberattack that similarly affected some of its operations.
Microchip said on Tuesday that it took prompt steps to address the breach, “including isolating the affected systems, shutting down certain systems, and launching an investigation with the assistance of external cybersecurity advisers.”
That has caused its operations to run at “less than normal levels,” affecting its ability to fill orders, the Chandler, Arizona-based chipmaker said in a statement.
“The company is working diligently to bring the affected portions of its IT systems back online, restore normal business operations and mitigate the impact of the incident,” Microchip said. “As the company’s investigation is ongoing, the full scope, nature and impact of the incident are not yet known.”
The chipmaker said it wasn’t yet sure whether the incident would materially affect its finances or results. The company was awarded money from the US Chips and Science Act earlier this year to help boost the output of semiconductors used in everything from cars to weapons systems.
In 2022, US chipmaker Nvidia Corp. suffered from a cyber breach that appeared to have been a ransomware attack, Bloomberg reported at the time, citing a person familiar with the incident. The company said back then that its business and commercial activities were “uninterrupted.”
(Updates with context and previous hacks starting in third paragraph.)
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