GoKawiilA new Reuters piece describes new threats to Apple’s chipmaker TSMC as a result of further reported actions by the Chinese government.
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly told officials that he slept “with one eye open” after attending a classified CIA briefing on Taiwan, and there is no sign that he will be sleeping better anytime soon …
Taiwan’s precarious position
China has long claimed ownership over Taiwan, and has conducted military exercises that included practicing a full-scale blockade of the island, leading to fears that it was planning an invasion.
We suggested in 2022 that the lackluster global response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was likely to embolden China. US and UK security services gave the same warning a few months later. But a potential invasion by China isn’t the only threat to TSMC.
Multiple additional threats
A Reuters report suggests that Taiwan faces three further threats to its independence and its world-leading chip fabrication expertise in particular.
First, China has been making increasing efforts to poach TSMC staff, with the apparent hope that they will bring with them insider knowledge of the chipmaker’s advanced processes. Taiwan’s National Security Bureau said that China “continues to use indirect channels to poach Taiwanese talent, steal technology, and procure controlled goods, with the aim of obtaining key core technologies and products such as Taiwan’s advanced-process chips.”
Second, Taiwan has been subjected to an exceedingly high number of attempted hacks, many of which were against government networks, but TSMC is also likely to be targeted by these.
Taiwan’s Government Service Network was targeted by more than 170 million intrusion attempts in the first quarter of this year, added the reported, delivered ahead of bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen
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