Tesla data breach: 75,000 employees affected by internal breach

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【Summary】Tesla admits data breach impacting 75k employees was insiders' job. Two former employees leaked personal information to a media outlet, including names, contact details, employment records, and Social Security numbers. Tesla filed lawsuits, seized devices, and obtained court orders to prevent further use of the data. The media outlet claims it won't publish the information. Elon Musk's Social Security number was also leaked.

FutureCar Staff Aug 25, 2023 9:47 AM PT

Tesla data breach: 75,000 employees affected by internal breach

Tesla, led by Elon Musk, has acknowledged that a data breach affecting over 75,000 employees was carried out by insiders within the company. The electric car manufacturer filed a data breach notice with the attorney general of Maine, stating that an internal investigation revealed that two former employees had leaked personal information of more than 75,000 individuals to a foreign media outlet.

Steven Elentukh, Tesla's data privacy officer, stated, "The investigation revealed that two former Tesla employees misappropriated the information in violation of Tesla's IT security and data protection policies and shared it with the media outlet."

The leaked personal information included data related to current and former employees, such as names, contact information (such as addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses), employment records, and Social Security numbers. A foreign media outlet, Handelsblatt, informed Tesla on May 10, 2023, that it had obtained confidential information from the company.

Tesla assured that the media outlet had stated its intention not to publish the personal information and that it was legally prohibited from using it inappropriately. The company took immediate action to contain the incident, assess its extent, and safeguard the affected information.

In response to the breach, Tesla identified and filed lawsuits against the two former employees. As a result, the company was able to seize the electronic devices of the former employees, which were believed to contain Tesla's confidential information. Tesla also obtained court orders that prohibit the former employees from further using, accessing, or disseminating the data, with criminal penalties attached.

In May, Handelsblatt reported a "massive" breach at Tesla, exposing personal information of employees and customer complaints about their cars. The publication claimed to have obtained over 23,000 internal documents, known as the "Tesla Files," containing 100 gigabytes of confidential data. It was also revealed that Elon Musk's Social Security number was included in the leak.