Tesla, led by Elon Musk, has faced a data breach impacting more than 75,000 employees due to internal misconduct.
Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company, Tesla, attributes a data breach affecting over 75,000 employees to internal misconduct. In an official breach notification to Maine’s attorney general, Tesla reveals that an investigation found two former employees leaked personal information of 75,000+ individuals to a foreign media source.
In the notice, Tesla’s data privacy officer, Steven Elentukh, states the inquiry exposed actions of the ex-employees who wrongfully took data, violating Tesla’s IT security and data protection rules, and then shared it with the media outlet.
The exposed data includes identifiable details like names, addresses, contact numbers, work records, and Social Security numbers for 75,735 present and past employees.
Tesla confirms the data leak to German newspaper Handelsblatt. In response, Handelsblatt assures not to publish the data and pledges its legal and proper use in line with regulations.
Handelsblatt’s May report outlines a significant security breach at Tesla, unveiling employee data and customer complaints about their cars. The publication accessed “Tesla Files,” over 23,000 internal documents with 100 GB of sensitive information, covering employee info, customer banking, production insights, and complaints about Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) features. Elon Musk’s Social Security number was even among the leaked data.
Tesla takes legal action against the ex-employees responsible, seizing their devices. Court orders bar these employees from using, accessing, or sharing the data, under threat of criminal penalties.
