An angry Tesla employee tried to damage the company by inserting bad code into the electric car company’s manufacturing system and illegally exporting data to third parties. The case serves as a reminder to the damage that rogue employees can do and the need for internal controls to prevent such attacks. Tesla has routed out the saboteur who changed code on internal products and exfiltrated data to outsiders, damaging company operations and possibly causing a fire, CEO Elon Musk told employees in an email.
“I was dismayed to learn this weekend about a Tesla employee who had conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations,” Musk wrote in the email to employees. “This included making direct code changes to the Tesla Manufacturing Operating System under false usernames and exporting large amounts of highly sensitive Tesla data to unknown third parties.”
While Musk said Tesla doesn’t know the full extent of the employee’s actions, “what he has admitted to so far is pretty bad,” noting that the saboteur claims to have wreaked his mayhem because “he wanted a promotion” that he was denied.
Musk cautioned employees to be on the lookout for such attacks by insiders and others that may want to harm the company. “Please be extremely vigilant, particularly over the next few weeks as we ramp up the production rate to 5k/week. This is when outside forces have the strongest motivation to stop us,” he wrote. “If you know of, see or suspect anything suspicious, please send a note with as much info as possible. This can be done in your name, which will be kept confidential, or completely anonymously.”