Tesla data breach update. Christie's bug reveals sellers' location data.

author: FutureCar Staff    

New details have emerged about the Tesla data breach that occurred in May, affecting more than 75,000 individuals. According to Steven Elentukh, Tesla's data privacy officer, two former employees were responsible for the breach. These employees allegedly stole company data and shared it with a German news outlet called Handelsblatt. Tesla is now suing the ex-staffers, and the devices containing the stolen data have been seized. The stolen documents included private employee data and thousands of customer complaints about potential safety issues in 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, two German cybersecurity researchers have discovered a flaw in the networks of British auction house Christie's. The researchers, Martin Tschirsich and André Zilch, found that when art sellers uploaded images of their artworks to Christie's website for appraisal, they unknowingly exposed their location data. Approximately 10% of the uploaded images contained exact GPS coordinates. This vulnerability allowed anyone online to access the location data of potential clients and their valuable artworks. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with the National Security Agency and the Australian Cyber Security Center, issued a joint statement addressing these types of security issues and the compromise of personal information. Despite informing Christie's about the vulnerability two months ago, the auction house only implemented a remedy after being contacted by The Washington Post. Initially, Christie's had rejected the researchers' offer of help, but they have now implemented technical measures to close the vulnerability. While Christie's has not publicly confirmed the researchers' findings, they stated that they continuously assess their security safeguards and comply with legal and regulatory obligations regarding client information.

FutureCar Staff