Tesla Data Breach Affects 75,000

More than 75,000 people have been potentially impacted by a data breach by two Tesla employees, according to the Maine Attorney General’s Office which posted notification of the May 10 breach on its website. 

According to the notification, the breach was due to “insider wrongdoing” and included names or other personal identifiers and social security numbers. The incident affected 75,735 people. 

In a copy of Tesla’s data incident notice sent to those impacted, the company was alerted to the breach by foreign media outlet Handelsblatt and an investigation found it was two former Tesla employees who “misappropriated the information in violation of Tesla’s IT security and data protection policies and shared it with the media outlet.”

Tesla said it “immediately took steps to contain the incident, understand the scope and protect your information.” The company also filed lawsuits against the two former employees, which included seizing their electronic devices that were believed to have contained company information. 

“Tesla is committed to the protection of the data it handles and will continue to confirm its safeguards and implement appropriate measures, as well as ensure employees are trained on responsible data handling practices,” the company said.

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