Elon Musk Says Failed Russian Ransomware Attack on Tesla Was ‘Serious’

Tesla owner Elon Musk has confirmed that the company was the target of a “serious” ransomware attack that was thwarted in a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting investigation in August. The Justice Department published a legal complaint Thursday detailing an alleged attempt by Russian national Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27, who tried to bribe a Tesla employee to install malware in the company’s network. The software was ransomware, which is used to encrypt a user’s files and hold them until a ransom is paid. Kriuchkov allegedly offered to pay the unnamed Russian-speaking employee—who worked at the Tesla “Gigafactory” in Reno, Nevada—$1 million to install the malware. The employee instead notified Tesla, which contacted the FBI. Agents then ran a sting operation using the employee to catch Kriuchkov, who was arrested Tuesday. Though the plot failed, Musk said Thursday: “This was a serious attack.” Newsweek subscription offers > The employee met Kriuchkov with some Tesla colleagues between August 1 and August 3, which included a trip to Lake Tahoe along the California-Nevada border. The Justice Department filings said Kriuchkov did not want to be included in any photos of the trip. At one point, he told the group he “would just remember… Read full this story

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