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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.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday June 22 2018, @05:20PM (7 children)
Seems like there's a lot of conflating of sabotage and espionage going on - stealing data is in no way sabotage, it doesn't directly interfere with operations in any way, it just gives competitors an extra edge. So was there *actual* sabotage performed, or is it all hyperbole?
As for his counterclaim to be a whistleblower - where's the whistle? Had he just not gotten around to blowing it yet? I would think an initial assessment could be made from the sort of data he extracted - is it focused on the problems he claims he wanted to expose, or on the sort of juicy technical and business details that would be valuable to a competitor?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 22 2018, @05:40PM (6 children)
Maybe you could click the second link in the story and read the complaint? (I know, who does that, right?)
Several of his acts meet the legal definition of sabotage. [uslegal.com]
Theft of data, plans, trade secrets not only gives a competitor an edge, it also removes an edge held by the victim, which has real and monetary consequences.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @07:07PM (2 children)
Depends on if he gave (or planned to give) the copied data to a competitor or a journalist.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 22 2018, @07:32PM (1 child)
Why does it depend on that?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @08:36PM
Because giving information to a journalist could be whistle blowing. Giving information to competitors could not.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday June 22 2018, @08:10PM (1 child)
So the law has redefined sabotage to include espionage. Sad, but legal definitions of terms frequently depart from their common meanings.
And no - stealing plans does NOT remove the companies edge - *destroying* those plans, so they had to be recreated from scratch (or at least memory), would do that. Making copies does not directly affect the victim in any way, it only means they now have to compete with others that have the same edge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @06:33AM
If a company A is planning to bid for something expensive, and a competing bidder B gets a copy of A's strategy due to internal spying, that spy did sabotage A's bid.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday June 23 2018, @12:05AM
I've also read allegation that he planted malware in company computers. That sounds like sabotage to me. (Various other things also, but sabotage is the one I personally take seriously.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.