Tesla data breach: New details emerge from Christie's bug

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【Summary】Tesla experienced a data breach, with two former employees stealing company data and sharing it with a German news outlet. The stolen documents included employee and customer data. This is not the first time Tesla has sued an employee for data theft. Meanwhile, British auction house Christie's had a flaw in its network that exposed the location data of potential clients and their valuable artworks. The vulnerability was only addressed after being contacted by researchers and the media.

FutureCar Staff Aug 26, 2023 9:38 AM PT

Tesla data breach: New details emerge from Christie's bug

New information has emerged regarding the Tesla data breach that occurred in May. The breach affected more than 75,000 individuals, and it has been revealed that two former Tesla employees were responsible for stealing company data and sharing it with a German news outlet called Handelsblatt. Tesla is now suing the ex-employees, and the devices containing the stolen data have been seized. The stolen documents included private employee data and numerous customer complaints about potential safety issues with Tesla cars. This is not the first time Tesla has dealt with such a breach, as they previously sued an employee in 2018 for stealing confidential information.

Meanwhile, British auction house Christie's has been facing its own cybersecurity issues. Two German researchers discovered a flaw in Christie's network that exposed the location data of potential clients and their valuable artwork. When individuals uploaded images of their artworks to Christie's website for appraisal, they unwittingly leaked their location data, making it accessible to anyone online. The researchers found that approximately 10% of the uploaded images contained exact GPS coordinates. This vulnerability was addressed by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in a joint statement with the National Security Agency and the Australian Cyber Security Center. The researchers notified Christie's about the vulnerability over two months ago, but the auction house only implemented a fix after being contacted by The Washington Post. Initially, Christie's rejected the researchers' offer of assistance but eventually implemented technical measures to close the vulnerability.

While Christie's has not publicly confirmed the researchers' findings, they have stated that they continuously assess their security measures, address issues related to client information security, and comply with legal and regulatory obligations.