Tesla data breach affecting 75k people was an ‘inside job: According to a notice posted on the website of the Office of the Maine Attorney General on Friday (17 August), two former Tesla employees have been charged for disclosing 75,735 current and former employees’ data to media outlet Handelsblatt in May.
In a letter to the state attorney general, Tesla said that a foreign media outlet (Handelsblatt) had notified them on May 10, 2023, that it had stolen sensitive information from Tesla.
According to the investigation, two former Tesla employees stole the material in breach of the company’s IT security and data protection regulations and gave it to the media outlet.
According to the letter, “Tesla also obtained court orders prohibiting the former employees from further use, access, or dissemination of the data.”
According to the letter, the two ex-employees had their electronic devices confiscated because of the litigation, which contained information about the business.
Tesla was notified by the German publication Handelsblatt that it would not publish the data because it was “legally prohibited from using it inappropriately,” per the letter.
Tesla failed to appropriately protect consumer, employee, and business partner data, according to a May Handelsblatt study.
According to the publication, the files contain information about current and former employees, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s social security number. Additionally, it provides private phone numbers, email addresses, employee salaries, and client bank information.
Tesla has started informing customers who were impacted by the hack.
This incident is not the first occasion in recent months that the automaker has faced criticism for data breaches. According to Reuters, Tesla employees exchanged private photographs taken by customer cars in April.
Employees allegedly shared ‘invasive’ pictures and videos taken by automobile cameras between 2019 and 2022.
In May, Tesla automobiles were also prohibited by Chinese officials from military installations and apartment complexes due to concerns that the cars’ built-in cameras would collect private information.
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