TSMC Confirms Employee Data Exposure Linked to Cloud Provider

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said personal information belonging to some current and former employees appeared on an external website, but the company found no evidence its own systems had been compromised or that customer and production data were affected.

In a November 12 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, TSMC said the information matched data stored in the system services of a cloud provider. The company did not identify the provider. It said the records were unrelated to its operations and customer data, and that it was notifying affected personnel and providing support.

TSMC said it is working with the cloud provider, relevant investigating authorities and a third-party cybersecurity firm to establish what happened. Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said in the filing that the company had engaged those parties to ascertain the facts and take necessary actions.

A seller’s listing on underground forums offered what it described as 6.9 gigabytes of employee data for three bitcoin and threatened publication within a week if no buyer came forward. The seller said the data covered about 46,000 records. TSMC has not verified that figure,...