Security News > 2023 > August > Leak of 75k employee records was insiders' fault, claims Tesla

The incident, Tesla disclosed in a data breach notification with the state of Maine and accompanying letter [PDF] to those affected, was the fault of two Tesla employees whom it alleged stole the info before sharing it with German business news outlet Handelsblatt.

The 100GB of data it received from the leakers, which Handelsblatt has dubbed the "Tesla files," includes an "Abundance" of customer data, and PII for more than 100,000 Tesla employees - including Elon Musk.

According to a Tesla lawyer quoted in the original story, one of the leakers - as alleged by Tesla - is said to be a disgruntled former service technician whom it claims abused their access to exfiltrate the data.

Per Reuters, German authorities said in May they were investigating the potential that the leak puts Tesla in the crosshairs of a GDPR violation, which Handelsblatt alleged is the case.

In the Handelsblatt case, the leak of so much insider data to a news outlet by Tesla employees raises obvious questions of whether Tesla learned anything from the last incident and whether it has proper data access rules in place.

Tesla didn't respond to questions from The Register.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/08/21/breach_of_75k_employee_records/