Microchip Technology has confirmed suffering a cyberattack which forced the company to suspend some of its operations.
While the details are scarce, the information available all points to this being a ransomware attack.
The company’s customer base counts more than 120,000 organizations all over the world. These organizations work in different industries, such as automotive, industrial, consumer electronics, aerospace, and communications.
Shutting down the infrastructure
In an 8-K form filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this week, Microchip said it detected “potentially suspicious activity” on August 17, which involved its IT systems. Two days later, it determined an unauthorized party disrupted the company’s use of certain servers and some business operations, leading to the shutdown of some parts of the IT infrastructure:
“The company promptly took additional steps to address the incident, including isolating the affected systems, shutting down certain systems, and launching an investigation with the assistance of external cybersecurity advisors,” the form reads.
“As a result of the incident, certain of the company’s manufacturing facilities are operating at less than normal levels, and the company’s ability to fulfill orders is currently impacted.”
The filing concludes that the investigation is ongoing and that all details are not yet known. However, companies that are forced to shut down parts of their infrastructure do so because of ransomware. At press time, no threat actors have assumed responsibility for the attack, so we will either have to wait for confirmation, or for sensitive data to leak on the dark web.
Microchip Technology is a major American semiconductor company specializing in the design and manufacturing of microcontrollers, mixed-signal, analog, and Flash-IP integrated circuits. Established in 1987, it operates a diverse portfolio of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontrollers, as well as memory devices, wireless and wired connectivity products, power management solutions, and development tools.
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