1. There are no thieves, no outside ghosts: TSMC has made an operational mistake and lost $170 million;
According to the micro-network news, the computer virus infection that broke out on TSMC on August 3 caused concern in the global industry chain. At the request of the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the company held a briefing session this afternoon. Wei Zhejia, president of TSMC, said that the virus infection was new. Due to negligence in the installation process of the machine, all affected production lines have resumed operation this afternoon and are in full-speed production. The event mentioned in the announcement on August 5 will affect 3% of revenue in the third quarter. Wei Zhejia said that due to full remediation, the revenue impact will be reduced to 2%, and the gross profit will still be affected by one percentage point. As for the affected wafer shipments, all will be replenished in the fourth quarter, so the annual performance outlook remains unchanged. .
In response to the August 3 incident, Wei Zhe's family gave a brief explanation. He said that the virus was a variant of the 'WannaCry' that broke out last year in the world. It was brought in when the new plant was installed in the bamboo plant, and then spread to Zhongke and South. Branch factory. 'Taiwan's tens of thousands of machines, this is the first time such an event. This front-end power grid prevention strategy when installing a new machine, first clean the virus, and then go online. And this mistake is in the first line The machine was used to carry out the anti-virus procedure, and an accident occurred. ' Wei Zhejia explained, 'There is no thief, no outside ghost, pure internal operation error.'
The virus infection incident is not lacking in various conspiracy theories. Wei Zhejia repeatedly stressed that because the new machine was not isolated before the line was taken. 'Because all the machines of TSMC are connected, as long as one infection, it will be transmitted to All machines. The more advanced (process) plants, the more automated, the more complex, the more affected, so the most affected processes are the 12-inch line and 7nm process, but they have all been restored. He explained, 'In fact, yesterday the machine has been fully restored, but TSMC is on the safe side, to ensure that the virus is not lurking elsewhere, so it will not be resumed this afternoon.'
Which side is the responsibility for the virus brought in by the new machine? Wei Zhejia did not disclose the equipment and equipment supplier of the new machine carrying the virus. He stressed that the current priority is to ensure the normal operation of the production line. And to ensure the customer's product delivery, does not rule out the aftermath. He also said that after the incident, TSMC will introduce new information security measures, research and development automation system inspection, manual + system testing double insurance 'defense The mechanism' will be more effective in preventing such incidents.
According to it, at present, all TSMC machines are Windows 7 systems, and the new machines are also Windows 7, but they are not 'patched'. After the accident, all systems will be updated. For the industry, TSMC is a world-class company. Whether it is capable of dealing with hacking, the head of TSMC's security department said that the world's security problems are increasing day by day. When the TSMC level has been working with Zian enterprises to strengthen prevention, they dare not say that dripping is not leaking, but the prevention capability is constantly strengthening. The WannaCry variant virus has spread as fast as WannaCry last year, but fortunately it does not have the ability to encrypt, so the impact on TSMC is not large.
In addition to various conspiracy theories, the impact of the accident on TSMC’s revenue is not small. In the official statement of TSMC on August 5, it was pointed out that the virus incident will cause the company’s third-quarter revenue to decline. 3%, the gross profit margin decreased by about 1 percentage point. At today's briefing, Wei Zhejia said that due to the rapid recovery of production lines and proper countermeasures, the impact on the third quarter revenue will be adjusted to 2%, and the impact on gross profit is still 1%. 'It is lower than the 3% announced yesterday, and it is estimated to be only 2%, affecting NT$5.2 billion.' TSMC explained that the impact on gross profit is mainly due to the increased cost of scrapped wafers, transferred products, etc. All impacts will be replenished in the fourth quarter.
TSMC's statement that the virus will affect shipments coincides with Apple's sensitive period, which is a major customer of TSMC, which contributes about 21% of its revenue. 7nm chips, Huawei, Bitcoin, etc. are all customers. TSMC did not disclose which customers will be affected. The comments on 'tens of thousands of scrapped wafers' were not confirmed by Wei Zhe, only emphasizing that the impact on customers will be minimized. As for the impact on end products, no comment will be given. .
There is a view in the industry that TSMC competitors will take the opportunity to take some orders from them. Wei Zhejia is very confident about this. He said that TSMC has carried out a good crisis management, actively cooperated with customers, and solved problems through communication. Therefore, customers have more to TSMC. Confidence, and promise not to let the same incident happen again. Several customer CEOs personally sent a message to say 'refuel, we believe TSMC!'
Usually, companies also buy insurance, including accidents, information security, etc. However, TSMC said that information security insurance is only for data leakage, etc. The TSMC virus infection incident is not within the scope of compensation. (Proofreading / 叨叨)
2. Wei Zhe's home fire line can resolve the 'post-Zhang Zhongmou' era doubts?
Wei Zhejia, president of TSMC, kissed the fire line yesterday, explaining the beginning and end of the 'intoxication' incident. This is the first major crisis that Wei Zhejia and Chairman Liu Deyin have faced since they took over the stick from the founder Zhang Zhongmou. Wei Zhejia asked the reporter to ask 'full,' Successful crisis management, then see if the internal can eradicate 'poison', so that customers and investors can restore confidence.
'It’s not a ghost or a hacker attack'. When Wei Zhe’s family opened it, he explained the most worrying things to the outside world. After all, human error can be avoided by strengthening employee education and training, and implementing SOP to avoid repeating the same mistakes, but if the virus infection is a hacker attack, As a semiconductor leader, TSMC can't resist the hacker attack. The fears of customers and the outside world cannot be erased.
'Humans can't make mistakes forever'. The words of Wei Zhejia are to express their feelings about the virus incident, and also to alleviate the possible harshness of the outside world. After Wei Zhejia hit the humanity card, he immediately thrown out a solution, such as the system will automatically detect in the future. The foolproof device, the firewall in the factory network, etc., and ensure that 'such errors will not happen again'.
Although Wei Zhejia asked reporters to fill up, but on key issues, such as affected processes, virus diffusion pathways, and equipment and suppliers of Tibetan viruses, they did not disclose. It is speculated that TSMC may not fully dispel doubts. Give hackers too much information, so as to avoid 'customized attacks', but also beware of competitors taking the opportunity to grab orders.
Yesterday's press conference, originally only the finance director He Limei and other four directors attended, and finally hosted by Wei Zhejia, although the outside world guessed that the founder Zhang Zhongmou instructed, but the president attended the explanation, just as he said, will make the outside world more assured, peace of mind.
After TSMC’s poisoning incident, the outside world’s questioning of TSMC during the post-Zhang Zhangzhong’s period continued. Wei Zhe’s family reiterated that he and Liu Deyin’s work as hard as before. Recently, TSMC’s personnel changes are an inevitable process for people’s retirement. The virus incident has nothing to do, and the treatment is also carried out in full accordance with the emergency response SOP. I hope that the action will let the outside world have confidence in TSMC, which is 'reviewing Liu Wei.' 3. Lose more than 1 billion in three days! TSMC poisoning 'Want to cry' Even the apples are new;
'No kidnapping or extortion. At present, the company's machine has resumed and entered the whole line in the afternoon. ' At 5:00 pm on August 6, TSMC President Wei Zhejia appeared on the first floor of the Taiwan Stock Exchange. ' .
Three days ago, TSMC encountered the biggest computer virus invasion since its establishment and caused the suspension of production. Although the press conference will be held at five o'clock, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the media reporters are already full of communication meetings. On the spot. On the official webcast platform, the reporter noticed that less than five points, the number of people waiting in line to watch has exceeded the upper limit.
TSMC is currently the world's largest wafer fabrication foundry, not only the vane of the chip industry, but also the compass of the new iPhone. It can even be said that TSMC has sneezed and Apple may have a cold.
'This is also the reason why the TSMC virus incident will be highly concerned by the outside world.' Lin Jianhong, manager of Taiwan's supply chain consulting agency Jibang Consulting Tuoba Industrial Park, told the First Financial Reporter that TSMC's revenue accounted for the overall revenue of the foundry. 56%, especially in advanced processes (ie CPU manufacturing process). In 2017, TSMC's production capacity accounted for 70% of the entire foundry advanced process sector.
Lin Jianhong said that TSMC's customers are mainly mobile phone manufacturers, of which Apple and Huawei are the main customers, and the other companies that are engaged in supercomputer (HPC), such as Nvidia and Xilinx, are mainly produced in TSMC. .
The implication is that any small virus infection may delay the time-to-market of the latest electronic products on the market.
Is the virus fierce or artificially oolong?
Less than two months after the retirement of TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou, the large-scale computer virus infection that broke out by TSMC can be said to have caused great concern.
In a statement released on the 5th for the first time, TSMC said that the virus infection incident will lead to delays in wafer shipments and increased costs. The company’s third-quarter revenue will be about 3%, gross margin. The impact was about one percentage point. But at yesterday's communication meeting, Wei Zhejia said that after re-estimation, the revenue impact narrowed to two percent.
'Is there any blackmail in this incident? ' 'Is it a hacker-specific action?' 'How high is the probability of a machine carrying a virus before networking?' In the case of a live reporter, as the company’s president Wei Zhejia can only explain over and over again, emphasizing the sporadic and low probability of events.
For the reason of the 'viral door', Wei Zhejia stressed at the scene that this virus infection was not attacked by hackers, nor was it a ghost. Instead, when using Window 7 system, a machine was not anti-virus before network update. After that, the virus spreads on a large scale. The affected machine cannot operate, and some automatic handling systems are not working properly. He said that this is an artificial negligence.
'And each virus has different characteristics, the distribution path is very fast, so the impact is relatively large, but fortunately this virus does not have the ability to encrypt. ' At the communication meeting, a person in charge of the 'network security problem' added a reply .
On August 3, near midnight, TSMC was located at the 12-inch wafer fab and operation headquarters of the Hsinchu Science Park. Suddenly, the news that the computer was invaded by the virus and the production line was completely shut down.
Within a few hours, TSMC's Fab 15 plant in the Taichung Science Park and the Fab 14 plant in the Tainan Science Park also sent the same news. This represents TSMC's important production bases in the north, middle and south of Taiwan. The virus invaded and caused the production line to stop.
According to the First Financial Reporter, TSMC's Fab 15 plant in Taichung Science Park (Zhongke) is mainly a 28nm (nano) and 7nm (nano) process production base. Among them, 7nm customers mainly include Apple, Qualcomm, Haisi, Chaowei ( AMD (19.3766, 0.89, 4.79%)), Nvidia, etc. It is worth noting that cryptocurrency customers who contribute significantly to TSMC's revenue, such as Bitmain, Canaan, GMO, etc., are also adopting 7nm. Craft.
For the peak season of the year, TSMC's 'virus door' appears to be very strange in the outside world.
'This time is indeed a man-made negligence.' Wei Zhejia stressed at the reporter's communication meeting that the virus infection incident was caused by the operation error of the new machine in the process of installing the software, 'When TSMC installed the new machine on August 3, This machine is not isolated before connecting to the network to ensure no virus, causing the virus to enter the company network.
Wei Zhejia pointed out that the virus is a variant of 'WannaCry' (want to cry), causing the machine after the infection to crash or restart. 'I am sure that this (virus) is not customized to deal with TSMC, I don't think That's it. ' Wei Zhe's family kept repeating his point of view at the scene.
He said that the company has resumed normal production, and TSMC's delay in delivery to customers should be kept to a minimum and quality should be the best.
'After the incident, our communication with our customers is going on every day. But the more advanced the process is affected by it.' Wei Zhejia said that he is not worried about the loss of customers. He said that the CEOs of many customers are after the problem and He passed the message saying 'refueling, we believe TSMC'.
'We usually do anti-virus treatment every machine will go online, this time the negligence is to go online and then do anti-virus treatment, we also feel very sorry, tens of thousands of machines, the first time such a thing, we will Putting on a new system, putting an end to man-made negligence. ' Wei Zhejia said.
Virus Doors and Apples
As a leading technology giant in chip technology, TSMC's every move touched the nerves of the electronics industry. After the news of the shutdown was exposed, it also quickly triggered a huge 'butterfly effect'.
Since TSMC is the supplier of Apple's iPhone core processor and the core foundry of wafer manufacturing in the world, the capital market has been violently reflected. On August 6th, TSMC gapped lower by NT$245, and Taiwan's weighted stock index was low. Opened 10,997.26 points, down 15.17 points.
'From the global 12-inch super fab site, TSMC's shipments account for 21% of the global market share.' Lin Jianhong told reporters that from the current impact, the products that have been shipped seem to look like The impact is not big, but from another perspective, the income of the foundry will be affected.
At the press conference, TSMC estimated that the incident of infection will lead to delays in wafer shipments in the third quarter, and the impact on revenue in the third quarter will not exceed 2%. This incident also led to a decrease in gross profit in the third quarter. One percentage point. TSMC is confident that the number of wafer shipment delays in the third quarter will be fully repaid in the fourth quarter, and the full-year outlook will remain high single-digit growth.
TSMC had expected revenue for the third quarter of this year to be between $8.45 billion and $8.55 billion. According to the median value of $8.5 billion, the impact of this incident on TSMC's revenue was about $170 million (about 1.1 billion yuan).
But obviously, for Apple, which is about to launch new products in September, and many consumers of electronic products, TSMC’s position is not entirely satisfactory.
TSMC has squeezed Samsung out of its technological leadership and has become the exclusive supplier of Apple's next-generation A12 processor. This processor will be the first to use 7nm process chips, and its performance will greatly exceed the 10nm process used by iPhone 8 and iPhone X. Chip processor.
Since May of this year, TSMC has begun mass production of 7nm process chips, and continues to increase production capacity, preparing for the release of Apple's autumn products.
Guo Minghao, an analyst who has always mastered Apple's dynamics, said that Apple is not only planning to launch three new iPhones this fall, but will also bring updates to Apple Watch, iPad, AirPods, and the entire Mac product line (even Mac mini).
'Because the impact of gross profit margin comes from the increase of cost, the original materials should be used more, which will have an impact on profit. I hope to use the later time to reduce this impact. ' TSMC financial officer said on the scene, the more advanced the machine used in the process The more complex and automated, the greater the impact. 'Now we confirm that the fourth quarter will come back at full speed, the impact on customers will be the lowest.'
Previously, Yu Chengdong, the head of Huawei's consumer BG, also told the First Financial Reporter that the latest chip will be released in the fall, using the 7nm process technology. At present, it may be affected.
'The further our technology moves forward, the more tuition we have to pay for network security. 'Cai Jingjing, chairman of Beijing Yongxin Zhicheng Technology Co., Ltd., told the First Financial Reporter that in this incident, TSMC itself has Strict network security procedures, but suppliers and company employees did not follow the standard process, resulting in the spread of the virus, it is clear that security can not be neglected. First Financial Daily 4. Anti-drug project team of Taiwan Science and Technology Factory;
In order to prevent computer virus intrusion, Hon Hai, Heshuo, Quanta, Inventec and AUO have set up information security teams, and separated each plant, that is, a factory is unfortunately poisoned and will not spread to Other factories, even the poisoning of Zone A in the same plant, will not affect the operation of Zone B, so as to minimize the impact, and the newly arrived machines will also conduct safety inspections first to avoid poisoning.
Heshuo said that the company has set up an information security team for corporate security to meet customers' various requirements for information security. From inside to outside, data, applications, operating systems, internal networks, external networks, physical environments, procedures Conduct a rigorous review with the policy, and from Simplified to Traditional, implement account generation, password requirements, permission settings, application process, login restrictions, record audit and multiple certification controls.
In addition, in addition to regularly backing up stored data, Heshuo also implements off-site preservation to ensure the integrity of the data. At the same time, Heshuo also regularly conducts information security and confidentiality promotion for its colleagues, and also irregularly targets different levels. Or business personnel to conduct appropriate information security education and training.
AUO said that it attaches great importance to the protection of business secrets and intellectual property rights. The company has established an information security committee within the company and established a complete information security management system.
AUO's information equipment is equipped with a virus protection mechanism for regular updates and scans. External storage devices must be used for security testing, and strict control over their use rights. File usage and transmission are also strictly regulated. .
As for other foundries such as Inventec and Quanta, it is understood that the factories and offices are operated separately and independently. If a block is poisoned, the firewall will separate them and will not affect other plants or offices. The poisoning range will be limited and will not spread.
At the same time, the machines and workshops of the foundry have anti-virus software, regular scanning and updating, and external machines. If new machines enter the production line, safety inspections are also required to avoid poisoning.
Hon Hai Group has promoted in the information security field. Honghai Chairman Guo Taiming has already announced at the beginning of this year that Hon Hai Group has deepened its layout in three networks, including smart manufacturing using big data, healthy Internet and information security network, among which the security part Also includes secure trading and supply chain finance. Economic Daily
5. Three major foreign capitals maintain the target price of TSMC;
TSMC held a major information briefing yesterday (6th), reiterating that the virus attack on the machine had a lower impact on revenue in the third quarter of less than 2%, and the annual revenue remained unchanged at the high single digit percentage of growth. It is pointed out that TSMC is expected to return to the fundamentals today when there is no other negative interest and doubts.
In response to the virus attack on TSMC, major foreign investors such as Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and CLSA issued a report for the first time, unanimously saying that the overall impact of the incident on TSMC's revenue this quarter is within reasonable limits and will not change TSMC. Leading position in advanced processes, maintaining existing ratings and target prices.
CLSA specifically pointed out that TSMC's priority strategy for handling this poisoning is to preserve advanced process orders such as 7 nm, 12 nm and 16 nm, including the A12 processor OEM for the new iPhone, followed by 40 nm. Within the mature process, the latter shipment may be deferred, Lyon is estimated to be August, and advanced processes are not affected.
Lyon is currently giving foreign investment to TSMC's highest target price. Based on TSMC's advanced process, it continues to lead, reiterating its target price of 300 yuan, and stressing that short-term correction is a buying point.
Chu Nansheng, chairman of Yongnan Investment Co., Ltd., said that due to the small impact of the poisoning incident, TSMC's share price only fell slightly yesterday, and foreign capital sold more than 4,801 sheets. Today's opening is expected to return to the fundamentals.
Chu Xiangsheng said that the legal person circle watched TSMC's 7-nanometer process, which is 'only this one, there is no semicolon', so it maintains a positive outlook. Economic Daily