Dive Overview:
Arizona-based semiconductor maker Microchip Technology Inc. said in a securities filing on Tuesday that a cyberattack had disrupted its manufacturing facilities, IT systems and order processing. “As a result of this incident, some of our manufacturing facilities are operating at lower than normal capacity and our ability to process orders is currently impacted,” Microchip President and CEO Ganesh Murthy said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Microchip said it first detected the suspicious activity on Saturday and took immediate steps to assess, contain and remediate the intrusion. By Monday, the company confirmed that an unauthorized third party had disrupted certain of Microchip's servers and some of its operations.
Dive Insights:
Microchip said it has approximately 125,000 customers across the industrial, automotive, aerospace and defense, communications and computing markets.
Once the company detected the intrusion, it isolated the affected systems, shut down some systems, and brought in third-party cybersecurity experts to conduct an investigation.
The company is still working to bring some of the affected IT systems back online and restore normal business operations.
“Our investigation is ongoing, and therefore the full extent, nature and impact of the matter remain unknown,” Moorthy said in the SEC filing. “As of the date of this filing, we have not yet determined whether the matter may have a material effect on our financial condition or results of operations.”
A Microchip spokesman declined to comment on how the attackers got into the company's systems, whether ransomware was involved or whether the company had received extortion demands in connection with the attack.
“The investigation is ongoing and we have no additional information to release at this time,” a spokesperson said in an email.
