Tesla has recently had a near-miss, almost falling victim to a Russian cybersecurity attack.
In a response on Twitter Tuesday night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the Nevada Gigafactory was, in fact, under a Russian cybersecurity attack, as we reported Thursday. Luckily, the employee remained loyal to Tesla and turned down a $1 million USD offer from the Russian schemers, instead sharing the information with Tesla, who subsequently told the FBI.
Much appreciated. This was a serious attack.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 27, 2020
While public speculation of the attack led onlookers to think Tesla may have been the victim, Teslarati reported Thursday that the Tesla Gigafactory was indeed the victim, but that the attack had been thwarted. Musk Tweeted a follow up to the article, saying, “Much appreciated. This was a serious attack.”
Through the opportunity, Tesla and the FBI were able to outfit the employee with a microphone to meet with the offending hacker, Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, a 27-year-old Russian national.
During the conversation, Kriuchkov alluded to a scheme of much greater scale than was previously known, and the FBI was able to arrest him and charge him with conspiracy.
Kriuchkov had intended to work with the Tesla employee to install a major malware update onto Tesla’s internal network, causing damage to the system and collecting data for the Russian organization.
While these attack plans were foiled, they certainly won’t be the last to try swindling major companies in an increasingly digital world.
