Tesla has blamed the data breach that affected more than 75,000 of its employees on insider wrongdoing.
The Elon Musk-owned electric car maker revealed this in a data breach notice filed with Maine’s attorney general. Steven Elentukh, Tesla’s data privacy officer, wrote in the notice that an investigation had found that two former employees leaked over 75,000 individuals’ personal information to a foreign media outlet.
The employees divulged information including personally identifying information, including names, addresses, phone numbers, employment-related records, and Social Security numbers belonging to 75,735 current and former employees.
Tesla said two former employees had shared the data with German newspaper Handelsblatt. The outlet assured Tesla that it wouldn’t publish the information and that it is “legally prohibited from using it inappropriately,” according to the notice.
The publication obtained more than 23,000 internal documents, dubbed the “Tesla Files,” containing 100 gigabytes of confidential data. This included employees’ personal information, customer bank details, production secrets, and customer complaints about Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) features.
According to Handelsblatt, Musk’s Social Security number was also included in the leak.
Tesla has filed lawsuits against the employees allegedly responsible for the data breach, which resulted in the seizure of the employees’ electronic devices.
