Tesla admitted that whistleblower caused a data breach

Tesla revealed earlier this month that a whistleblower had caused a data leak incident that could potentially impact about 75,000 individuals. The tech company has clarified that the data breach incident is not a product of a cyberattack against their systems.

Moreover, the company has notified the United States authorities about the data breach they discovered in May. The confirmed breach details include the personal information and social security numbers of over 75,700 people.

 

Tesla has already rolled out notification letters to the affected people.

 

According to Tesla, they notified the impacted people via letters. They explained that the breach was caused by a couple of former employees sending confidential information to a German media outlet.

The tech company also claimed that their ex-employees misappropriated the information that violates their IT security and data protection policies.

Hence, the leak has compromised troves of data, such as names, contact information, and employment-related records relevant to current and former employees. Fortunately, the company has offered all affected individuals credit monitoring and identity protection services.

The leak first emerged after the German media outlet reported that it had received 100 gigabytes worth of confidential Tesla information from a whistleblower. Additionally, the newspaper company revealed that Tesla had failed to protect its employee, client, and partner data.

The leaked archives, called ‘Tesla Files,’ allegedly contained data of over 100,000 current and former employees, production secrets, customer complaints, and bank details.

Fortunately, the company that received the files has assured Tesla that they will not publish personal information.

Cybersecurity experts believe the exposed data could not be misused since the incident has reached an ethical company. The company has announced the disclosure since it is a legal requirement in the US.

On the other hand, Tesla’s legal team has described the leakers as disgruntled former employees after the data leak incident. They have also filed a lawsuit against the employees who sent the data to the German company. The case resulted in the confiscation of the former employees’ devices that allegedly stored the Tesla files.