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Tesla Sues Former Employee it Accuses of Sabotage

posted by martyb on Friday June 22 2018, @04:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the get-a-lawyer-*first* dept.

takyon writes:

Tesla has sued an employee it accuses of illegally transferring company data to outsiders:

According to the civil complaint that was filed in federal court in Nevada, Tesla accused Martin Tripp, who began working in Sparks as a "process technician" in October 2017, of exporting company data:

Tesla has only begun to understand the full scope of Tripp's illegal activity, but he has thus far admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla's manufacturing operating system ("MOS") and to transferring several gigabytes of Tesla data to outside entities. This includes dozens of confidential photographs and a video of Tesla's manufacturing systems.

Beyond the misconduct to which Tripp admitted, he also wrote computer code to periodically export Tesla's data off its network and into the hands of third parties. His hacking software was operating on three separate computer systems of other individuals at Tesla so that the data would be exported even after he left the company and so that those individuals would be falsely implicated as guilty parties.

In a supposed email exchange with CEO Elon Musk after the lawsuit was filed on Wednesday, the employee and Musk traded barbs. The employee claims to be a whistleblower bringing attention to battery, safety, and waste issues.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Sulla on Friday June 22 2018, @04:54PM (2 children)

    by Sulla (5173) on Friday June 22 2018, @04:54PM (#696826) Journal

    he's also made himself very nearly unemployable

    Thats assuming he is now unemployed and not just working for his actual employer.

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  • (Score: 1) by tftp on Friday June 22 2018, @05:10PM (1 child)

    by tftp (806) on Friday June 22 2018, @05:10PM (#696838) Homepage
    As he will be working full time preparing to and standing the trial, his current job is irrelevant - if he has it, he will lose it soon, one way or another. If the trial clears his name, he will have a chance of regaining employment.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 22 2018, @05:30PM

      by frojack (1554) on Friday June 22 2018, @05:30PM (#696853) Journal

      If the trial clears his name

      Even if he some how escapes major punishment, the fact that he confessed in writing ( Page 2, point 14 of linked complaint-) works against him working in this field again. That doesn't make him unemployable. California needs fruit pickers, and lawn boys.

      Will anyone trust him with a company keyboard again? No rational person would, but there are places who don't always check references. Its easy to get a new identity in the US. I expect Tesla will have to scan every system and every router for back doors he may have implanted.

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