☕ Taiwan’s rising chip stack

To:Brew Readers

IT Brew // Morning Brew // Update

February 22, 2024

PRESENTED BY

It’s Thursday! Apple says to stop putting your iPhone into rice. It can damage your device, and it makes dinner weird.

In today’s edition:

Chips deluxe

PLC ya later

When Mark met Brew

—Amanda Florian, Billy Hurley, Eoin Higgins, Patrick Lucas Austin

SEMICONDUCTORS

Made in Taiwan

Francis Scialabba

Leading with a 68% market share in the industry, Taiwan is home to a majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips. China—approximately 1,300 miles away—wants in.

Back in May, Taiwanese officials said Chinese firms were often willing to pay Taiwanese talent 500% more for engineering roles in China. Taiwan’s labor ministry responded to these recruiting efforts by ordering job sites to remove such listings.

TSMC, a Taiwanese semiconductor firm, produces nearly 90% of the world’s most advanced chips used for AI and quantum computing applications. They’re the firm behind all of Apple’s custom chips, also supplying CPUs and GPUs for Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and more.

Read more here.—AF

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

PRESENTED BY THOROPASS

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OPERATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

That looks like water damage

a faucet with tubes coming out of it connected to a TV screen

Francis Scialabba

The water tank might be half empty, depending on how you view one company’s internet scan for industrial controllers.

Researchers from the threat-management platform Censys discovered 149 internet-accessible devices from the Israel-based automation manufacturer Unitronics.

The 149 programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which use sensors and data processing to support automation in facilities like water plants, manufacturing environments, and food-processing centers, have exposed remote-access protocols and web control panels, according to the company’s Feb. 8 report.

The discovery is concerning to some industry experts, given recent cyberattacks on water facilities—the kind that strikes many unprepared teams and can begin with a similar PLC find.

Read more here.—BH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

INTERVIEWS

Morning Brew’s Meta meetup

Meta

If you’re wondering about the role of AI in the flurry of layoffs we’ve seen in early 2024, why not ask a tech executive?

That’s what our colleagues at Morning Brew Daily did. In an more than 40-minute interview with Mark Zuckerberg released Feb. 16, hosts Neal Freyman and Toby Howell asked the Meta CEO about a range of topics, including the consequences of industry adoption of AI.

“I think that there will be a bunch of transformation that will mean that certain jobs, we don’t do them in the way that we’re doing them now—certain things might get automated,” Zuckerberg said.

Keep reading here.—EH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

TOGETHER WITH VEEAM

Powerful data resilience = a powerful biz. That’s it. That’s your new slogan. We teamed up with Veeam to show you just how important data protection is to any business that’s looking to scale. Yes, even yours. Check it out.

PATCH NOTES

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: 71,000+. That’s the number of AT&T outages reported just before 8am ET today. (NBC News)

Quote: “Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice.”—Apple, providing updated guidance on device repair (The Verge)

Read: Security pros react to a 190-megabyte data leak that offered insight into China’s apparent hacking and surveillance efforts. (PBS)

Half comp’d compliance: With a SOC 2 and PCI DSS bundle from Thoropass, you can buy SOC 2 and get 50% off PCI DSS for a limited time. Stay compliant and within budget.*

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JOBS

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VIRTUAL EVENT

Beyond the DMV

Say goodbye to long lines and bureaucratic delays—it’s time to reimagine government interactions. Join us on Feb. 29 with Claudia Arriaga, SVP of customer success and support at OpenGov. Together, we’ll discuss the evolution of government services beyond the stereotypes, shedding light on the pressing need for modernization. Register now!