MKS Instruments ransomware

On February 3, 2023, MKS Instruments Inc., a US-based manufacturer of semiconductor capital equipment with approximately $3 billion in annual revenue, detected a ransomware attack on its corporate network. The attack encrypted ERP, order-processing, manufacturing-execution, and shipping-tracking systems, leaving the company unable to process customer orders or ship product across both its Vacuum Solutions and Photonics Solutions divisions. MKS disclosed the incident on Form 8-K on February 6, 2023, and quantified the financial impact in subsequent earnings releases at approximately $200 million in deferred revenue, with downstream impact at customer Applied Materials disclosed at approximately $250 million. The company has not publicly named the ransomware family or attributed the attack to a specific group. A class-action complaint was filed in California state court on March 3, 2023. The combined upstream and downstream impact made this the largest publicly reported financial loss from a ransomware event in the semiconductor supply chain to that point.

Approximately $200 million in deferred MKS revenue; approximately $250 million in deferred Applied Materials revenue; weeks of production-supporting-system downtime; class-action litigation. Specific employee-data breach notifications followed under California and Massachusetts state breach-notification statutes.