Russian tourist offered employee $1 million to cripple Tesla with malware
“This was a serious attack,” Elon Musk says. …
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Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory was the target of a concerted plot to cripple the company’s network with malware, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Thursday afternoon.
The plan’s outline was divulged on Tuesday in a criminal complaint that accused a Russian man of offering $1 million to the employee of a Nevada company, identified only as “Company A,” in exchange for the employee infecting the company’s network. The employee reported the offer to Tesla and later worked with the FBI in a sting that involved him covertly recording face-to-face meetings discussing the proposal.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was to recruit an employee of a company to surreptitiously transmit malware provided by the coconspirators into the company’s computer system, exfiltrate data from the company’s network, and threaten to disclose the data online unless the company paid the coconspirators’ ransom demand,” prosecutors wrote in the complaint.
Musk: “This was a serious attack”
Until Thursday afternoon, the identity of Company A was uncertain, although there was plenty of Twitter speculation—and several sourceless blog reports—that Tesla’s site in Nevada was the target. In a Tweet responding to one of the unconfirmed reports, Musk wrote: “Much appreciated. This was a serious attack.”
Much appreciated. This was a serious attack.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 27, 2020
Tuesday’s charging document, which was filed in federal court in Nevada, detailed an extensive and determined attempt to infect Company A’s network. Defendant Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27, allegedly traveled from Russia to Nevada and then met with the unnamed employee on multiple occasions. When Kriuchkov’s
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