Tesla sues former worker over data hacking

Tesla in a lawsuit has accused a former employee of hacking into the carmaker’s computer system to steal data.

Tesla’s Elon Musk says workers should be on the lookout for possible saboteurs

Tesla in a lawsuit has accused a former employee of hacking into the carmaker’s computer system to steal company data and send it to an unnamed third party.

The Silicon Valley electric carmaker’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nevada on Wednesday, says the former employee, Martin Tripp, admitted to writing software to hack the company’s manufacturing operating software and transferring several gigabytes of data to “outside entities”, including dozens of confidential photographs and videos of the system.

He also wrote a computer code to export Tesla data from its network, Tesla alleged in its suit.

A Tesla spokesman declined to comment further.

Mr Tripp didn’t have an immediate comment.

Earlier this week, chief executive Elon Musk in a memo to employees cautioned them to be on the lookout for possible saboteurs, noting an employee had been found conducting an “extensive and damaging sabotage” to the company’s operations and hacked into the manufacturing operating system to export data.

Asked on Twitter whether he was referring to Mr Tripp in his memo, Mr Musk didn’t directly answer yes or no, but suggested there were multiple people attempting to harm Tesla.

“There is more, but the actions of a few bad apples will not stop Tesla from reaching its goals,” he wrote.

“With 40,000 people, the worst 1 in 1000 will have issues. That’s still ~40 people.”

Tesla said in its suit Mr Tripp began working at Tesla’s battery factory outside Reno in October 2017 as a process technician. The company alleges Mr Tripp was reassigned to a new role in May after his managers said he had performance problems and was disruptive and combative with colleagues. “Tripp retaliated against Tesla by stealing confidential and trade-secret information and disclosing it to third parties, and by making false statements intended to harm the company,” the lawsuit said.

Tesla’s investigators interviewed Mr Tripp on June 14 and 15, during which he allegedly admitted hacking and transferring the data, the lawsuit said.

The disruption comes as Tesla attempts to ramp up production of the Model 3 sedan by the end of the month to 5000 units a week, a goal that has eluded it for six months and placed great pressure on its finances.

Mr Musk has rejected analysts’ calls to raise more cash, saying Tesla would generate positive cash flow in the second half of the year after reaching the 5000-a-week build rate and become profitable in the third and fourth quarters.

To help reach that profitability goal, Tesla cut about 9 per cent of its workforce last week.

Tesla’s battery factory has been a trouble spot in the ramp-up of the Model 3. It has struggled to ramp up automation there and required new equipment to be installed.

Tesla’s lawsuit alleged Mr Tripp made false claims with the information he took, including that punctured battery cells had been used in some Model 3 ­customer vehicles.