Monthly Archives: August 2018

Semiconductor Fabricator TMSC Struck By Virus On Production Equipment

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Semiconductor Fabricator TMSC annouced that they were hit with a virus that multiple pieces of their production operation in Taiwan. TMSC alleges the virus entered their systems as they were installing software for a new tool. TMSC's full announcement:

Issued by: TSMC
Issued on: 2018/08/05
Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C., Aug 5, 2018 – TSMC today provided an update on the Company’s computer virus outbreak on the evening of August 3, which affected a number of computer systems and fab tools in Taiwan. The degree of infection varied by fab. TSMC contained the problem and found a solution. As of 14:00 Taiwan time, about 80% of the company’s impacted tools have been recovered, and the Company expects full recovery on August 6.
TSMC expects this incident to cause shipment delays and additional costs. We estimate the impact to third quarter revenue to be about three percent, and impact to gross margin to be about one percentage point. The Company is confident shipments delayed in third quarter will be recovered in the fourth quarter 2018, and maintains its forecast of high single-digit revenue growth for 2018 in U.S. dollars given on July 19, 2018.

Most of TSMC’s customers have been notified of this event, and the Company is working closely with customers on their wafer delivery schedule. The details will be communicated with each customer individually over the next few days.

This virus outbreak occurred due to misoperation during the software installation process for a new tool, which caused a virus to spread once the tool was connected to the Company’s computer network. Data integrity and confidential information was not compromised. TSMC has taken actions to close this security gap and further strengthen security measures.

US NRA On The Ropes Amid State Financial Deplatforming Attack

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The US National Rifle Association, an organization that has long been a major financial supporter of more than half of active US politicians at any given time, is in peril after facing a financial deplatforming attack led by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (archived). As a result of Cuomo's blacklist campaign the NRA has lost its general liability insurance and is having extraordinary difficulty accessing the fiat financial services their organization depends on.

Politically motivated deplatforming campaigns have typically been limited in effect to denying social media access and occasionally financial services to figures outside the political mainstream on popular platforms. By contrast the National Rifle Association has long been a pillar of mainstream US politics serving to moderate the mass of would be conservative voters into a form more malleable to "our democracy" by promising them no matter what horrors may come, at least they could keep their guns. That's a rather tepid proposition for this age of The Great Again.

Venezuela's Maduro Survives Drone Attack

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Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro was allegedly attacked by explosive drones as he was giving a speech to celebrate the 81st anniversary of the "Bolivarian National Guard" (archived). Maduro celebrated his survival by delivering a speech condemning new NATO affiliate Colombia and the far right for the apparent attempt on his life.

Germany Debates Starting Nuclear Weapons Program

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Amid increasing isolation within Europe, political instability, and an unyeilding committment to a 1990's Clintonesque "end of history" worldview, the German political establishment is considering the merits of starting a nuclear weapons program (archived). Several years of sending their soldiers to joint NATO exercises armed with black broomsticks in the place of rifles (archived) has the German regime fearful that its allies might take the alliances which have blanketed Germany with foreign protection as unseriously as the Germans themselves do.

Germany has been dismantling their civil nuclear power generation infrastructure for years raising concerns over what they will do with all their delicious yellow cake.

Mikrotik Routers Leveraged For Brasilero Botnet Mining Recruitment

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A number of Mikrotik routers of the sort previously hijacked by the USG for terrorism in Brazil have been pressed into service recruiting botnet miners (archived). Mikrotik routers deployed in carrier and end user application are injecting "Coinhive Javascript Monero Mining (TM)(R)" into http traffic passing through their routes. So far most of the affected routers and traffic have been centered in Brazil with some spread into other geographic regions.

Yet Another 'Unhackable' And 'Tamperproof' Hardware Wallet Hacked And Tampered

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The "Bitfi" wireless hardware wallet has been discovered to be very hackable and otherwise molestable contrary to vendor claims (archived). The device turns out to be a Mediatek Android smartphone board in a case readily pried open by a normal, healthy human thumbnail. Meanwhile the software stack is readily rootable and open to subterfuge as these things tend to be.

Reddit Hacked, User Data Taken

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Reddit has announced that they were hacked in June losing control of current user email addresses and a complete 2007 backup including password salted and hashed to Reddit's 2007 standards for such things (archived). Reddit attributes their loss to SMS based 2 factor authorization being defeated with their third party cloud and code hosting providers. They further claimed to have involved "law enforcement" in this matter.

Vandalia Outdoors Retailer Hit By Multi Agency USG Raid

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Multiple agencies operating as part of the criminal conspiracy known as the USG hit Wildlands Outdoor Equipment in Vandalia, Illinois with an early morning raid (archived). Forces from "Homeland Security", the FBI, ATF, and Illinois State Police descended on the property of 82 year old Bob Hanabarger in armoured vehicles followed by flatbed trucks. The thieves made no arrests and the local US attorney's office declined to comment on why the USG raiders loaded property including entire intermodal containers onto their vehicles.

Hanabarger has reportedly been operating his business equipping outdoor enthusiasts for decades.