TSMC Confirms Hacker Obtained Employee Data and Demanded 3 BTC, Says Internal Systems Uncompromised

According to Jiemian News, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) responded on November 12 to reports of a hacker attempting to sell an alleged 6.9GB database containing 46,000 TSMC employee records on an underground forum for 3 BTC; TSMC confirmed that personal data belonging to certain current and former employees was exposed without authorization, noting that preliminary investigations link the leaked records to a third-party cloud service provider’s system rather than an intrusion into TSMC’s own internal IT infrastructure. The chipmaker emphasized that production operations and customer data remain completely unaffected, adding that it is notifying impacted staff and working closely with the cloud vendor, law enforcement, and external cybersecurity firms to investigate the breach.