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Metal whiskers are not a new problem, they were a big plague with some types of 60s germanium transistors, the worst was the AF117, this transistor has a near 100% failure rate, whiskers grew from the inside walls of the metal can and when they grew long enough, they shorted the leads to the can.
They're easy to fix though, you just solder the B-C-E leads together and then discharge a 50v 100mfd cap between the leads and the can, this burns the whiskers, this is usually a temporary fix, sooner or later another whisker will grow long enough to reach a lead and short the transistor again
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