The Route

For many manufacturers and suppliers, Covid-19 is only the second-most feared pandemic. The ongoing threat of having internal systems hijacked and held for ransom – colloquially known as a ransomware attack – will surely outlive the specter of the virus shutting down a facility.

We know of a few instances where this has occurred in the printed circuit industry. A few years ago, a publicly traded board fabricator saw almost all its sites in North America hit, with the hijacked sites taken offline for a few days to a few weeks. Sales and deliveries were affected. In late 2020, Foxconn, the big daddy of the electronics industry, suffered a ransomware attack at its plant in Juarez, Mexico, where attackers stole some files, deleted others, and encrypted the manufacturer's servers. The hackers sought a reported $34 million to release the data. Compal, another top 10 EMS/ODM, was also hit. In all likelihood, it's happened more often than has been publicized.

Still, efforts to immunize the US defense supply chain and others against these hacks has been met with mixed reviews. One primary reason: cost. Bringing systems up to date and maintaining them over the long haul requires highly trained engineers who can cost $100,000 or more per year while not adding to the bottom line.

Read more: New Cyber Policy a Shot in the Arm... but for Whom?

By now you probably have heard of ChatGPT. This new artificial intelligence program mimics conversations and language in a way the general public has never seen. Per its website, its developers trained an initial model using “supervised fine-tuning”; in other words, humans provided conversations in which they acted as both user and AI “assistant.” Model-written suggestions were used to help compose their responses.

Read more: Keep an Eye on AI

We’ve all awakened to the fact that our environment is watching us.

It happens in the home, where we are surrounded by Rings and Nests and Alexas, tracking our movements (slow), our room temperatures (cold), our conversations (yikes!).

Read more: Keep Watching the Cameras

The world’s largest tech companies are masters of their domains: Apple in phones; Google in search; Facebook in social media.

Why stop there? All three are going into financial services, and if past is prelude, they intend to dominate the space.

Read more: Bank Shots

Mike Buetow

I was all set this month to write about plating using additive manufacturing, but when someone pointed out just how subtractive the industry really is, it compelled a change in plans.

It came in the way of an email from Dr. Hayao Nakahara, the preeminent market researcher in the printed circuit industry. Naka, as he is known to friends, shared results of a months-long study of the North American PCB supply base.

This was no easy task. Naka started with the Fabfile database, long the favorite child of Harvey Miller. Harvey, who is about to hit 100 years old (!), gave Naka the keys to the car. In turn, Naka reached out to every company on that list, diligently revising and updating. The effort took more than three months.

Read more: A Different Kind of Additive Manufacturing

Mike Buetow

For more than 20 years, PCD&F/CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY has been proud to be the exclusive publisher of the annual NTI - 100 list of the world’s largest board fabricators.

One of the striking changes over the years has been the reshaping of the industry geographical landscape.

In this year’s rankings, which begin on page 32 of the August 2022 issue, see how many Europe- and US-based companies are in the top 25. I'll save you the suspense. One each: AT&S and TTM Technologies, respectively. Long gone are the days when Photocircuits, Sanmina, Hadco, Viasystems and the like dominated the top of the chart.

Read more: In the Rush to Get Big, Let’s Not Forget the Little Guys

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