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Sony (SNE), in the wake of the recent cyberattacks, says their financial and accounting systems are totally disrupted to the point where they can't count. While saying they don't think their results have been materially affected, they are requesting several weeks of relief in filing their quarterly numbers.
The question for discussion: are companies in the semiconductor and technology industry at large better prepared for something of this magnitude? There's a presumption that being "tech" companies, running an IT operation would be second nature - but they aren't necessarily the same skills involved. With more operations turning to the cloud and mobile and BYOD and other trends, it seems the security risks are on the increase. What do you think?
Interesting topic. In the semiconductor world the design files (GDSII) are protected at the highest level. Remember, these files are shared amongst the fabless semiconductor ecosystem. The level of security for each process node has increased dramatically since 28nm and 10nm security is dramatic. The accounting and IT stuff at semiconductor companies not so much apparently.
Personally I know a major foundry company actually has multiple IT departments and they treat each other sometimes like an outside company. I used to ask my friends there about why they do this way because it seems inefficient. He explained to me the reasons that I understood but didn't agree totally. Now I can understand there are more not-so-obvious reasons behind it.
You should make an insurance company to hedge the IT security breaching risk. It will be considered as one of the highest operation risks firms are facing in the future.
