TSMC fights virus at factories




iPhone chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. saw several of its factories knocked offline Friday night because of a virus, but it's unclear whether production of the iPhone components was affected, said a report Saturday by Bloomberg.

The virus wasn't introduced by a hacker, TSMC told the publication, adding that the company had contained the problem and restarted some manufacturing, though some facilities won't be back up till Sunday.

"TSMC has been attacked by viruses before, but this is the first time a virus attack has affected our production lines," the company's chief financial officer, Lora Ho, told Bloomberg. The company didn't immediately respond to CNET's request for further comment. Bloomberg said TSMC plans to provide additional info Monday.

Ho declined to talk with Bloomberg about how much money the disruption might cost the company or whether the afflicted factories produce chips for Apple's iPhone.