TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor supplier who is a supplier of Apple, was suspended due to a virus attack

Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC , who is responsible for manufacturing processors for major manufacturers such as Apple and Qualcomm, has been forced to temporarily suspend operations at factories by a computer virus attack on factory systems Bloomberg of foreign media reports that it is falling.

Computer Virus Cripples IPhone Chipmaker TSMC Plants - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-04/tsmc-takes-emergency-steps-as-operations-hit-by-computer-virus

iPhone supplier TSMC shut down factories after virus attack - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/4/17651448/iphone-supplier-taiwan-semiconductor-manufacturing-co-tsmc-virus-shut-down

TSMC is one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers supplying components for leading manufacturers such as AMD, Apple, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. According to what TSMC told Bloomberg, the factory was attacked with a computer virus "infected with many manufacturing tools". Part of the factory that has been attacked resumes operations, but other plants are likely to be unable to resume operations after August 4 when the attacks are detected. However, TSMC says "The factory is not hacked by a hacker."

TSMC's Lora Ho CFO says, "It is the first time that these virus attacks affected our production line." In addition, Ho CFO has not revealed whether the factory which temporarily stopped the work by the virus is the line which produces parts to be supplied to Apple, and what kind of loss due to the virus attack will be at the time of writing the article It is unknown.

In the fall of 2018, multiple IT companies including Apple are about to release next-generation products, for example, Apple is expected to install the A12 chip at the heart of the next-generation iPhone that will appear in the autumn. It is reported that TSMC has started manufacturing A12 chips for the next iPhone as of May 2018. The period of August, when the autumn is around the corner, is "a very important time for TSMC", so virus attack at such timing can be a serious blow to TSMC.

Apple's A12 chip manufactured at TSMC is expected to bring the company the largest earnings ever.

TSMC will be able to earn record revenue by 7 nm process to manufacture Apple's next SoC "A 12" - GIGAZINE

Also, the benchmark result of the A12 chip is running out, and you can see how much performance is up from A11 Bionic installed in iPhone X etc. by reading the following article.

The benchmark result of Apple's next-generation chip "A12" leaks, the next iPhone will speed up memory 4 GB & 10% - GIGAZINE