The “Handelsblatt” is said to have been leaked 100 gigabytes of sensitive Tesla data, including from employees at the Brandenburg site. Tesla itself suspects an ex-employee. The authorities are investigating.
There has apparently been a major data leak at the electric car manufacturer Tesla. The Düsseldorf “Handelsblatt” reported that informants had leaked a total of 100 gigabytes of confidential data to him, which is said to have come from Tesla’s IT systems.
This includes a lot of sensitive and personal information about customers, employees and business partners – including private addresses and salaries. Some of the documents also deal with projects such as the self-driving car, the development of new battery cells or the planned Cybertruck electric pickup.
Brandenburg state data protection officer determined
Data protection authorities from Germany and the Netherlands are already investigating. The Brandenburg state data protection officer Dagmar Hartge is investigating indications that the employee data was not adequately protected and could have been widely accessible within the group, the authority said.
“Should this prove to be correct, the matter would be particularly serious from a data protection point of view, also because of the large number of people affected worldwide,” emphasized a spokesman for the state data protection officer.
He also emphasized that the people affected were not only employees at the Tesla plant in Grünheide, but also employees at other German and European locations. In view of this international dimension, the Dutch data protection supervisory authority was also informed.
According to the “Handelsblatt”, an informant had already contacted the Brandenburg data protection authority in April. Tesla operates its only e-car plant in Europe to date in Grünheide in Brandenburg.
Tesla suspects ex-employees
Tesla told the newspaper it suspects a former employee of sharing data in violation of confidentiality obligations. He “abused his access as a service technician to exfiltrate information”. Tesla wants to take legal action against the suspected ex-employee.
The IG Metall trade union called for employees to be “extensively informed” about all violations of data protection rights. “These revelations are disturbing and at the same time fit into the picture that we have gained in almost two years from our own impressions and descriptions of colleagues at Tesla,” it said. Apparently, “the employees’ most personal data is open to every conceivable form of abuse.”