TSMC Confirms Employee Data Leak as Hackers Try to Sell 46,000 Records for Bitcoin

TSMC confirmed a data leak after hackers began trying to sell roughly 46,000 employee records for 3 Bitcoin, threatening to publish the data if no buyer steps forward. The disclosure marks a rare public acknowledgment of a breach by the world's largest contract chipmaker, whose customers include Apple and Nvidia. The stolen dataset covers employee records rather than customer or process data, limiting the immediate operational risk to the chip supply chain. The asking price of 3 BTC is modest in dollar terms, suggesting the incident is more a reputational and compliance matter than a financial one for TSMC. What to watch next is whether a buyer emerges before the deadline, whether TSMC confirms the scope of the records, and whether the leak prompts any tightening of third-party and vendor data controls.