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

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: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 22 2018, @04:52PM (5 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 22 2018, @04:52PM (#696825) Journal

    If the dude wants to be a whistleblower, he better come up with something worth blowing a whistle. Excessive waste? Whoop-ti-do. Companies produce waste. With time and experience, waste may be reduced, but there will always be waste. Faulty batteries in production cars? Needs proof. Dummy put himself between a rock and a hard spot, unless he has something important. And, he's also made himself very nearly unemployable. Habeus corpus, Mr. Tripp. No bodies? Yours will do nicely.

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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.

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
    • (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.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @06:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @06:35PM (#696879)

    But but but incels! He was fighting against incel and he-man woman hater Elon Musk! He sits on couches! How much more evidence do you need of misogyny and rape and incel... ness?!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @10:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 22 2018, @10:01PM (#696996)

    It's always whistleblowing.

    This is my car analogy come to life. I used to explain the explain the Snowden issue with the example of a person "whistleblowing" at a car company! It was Ford though, not Tesla. Maybe it should have been Volkswagen.

    So, suppose your employer seems to be cheating on diesel emissions or electric car credits or whatever. You raise the issue at work. Most people disagree that the actions are illegal, and the rest don't want to rock the boat. You decide to get revenge, claiming to be a whistleblower. You dump everything on the internet. You go far beyond the issue at hand. You dump out the financials, the CAD files for future cars, the plans for negotiating with the union, the employee data related to disability accommodations, salaries, VPN logins, web site private certificates, emails of employees sleeping with each other, social security numbers, and much more. You don't even know what it all is. Torrent away! It's totally OK because your personal opinion (which, though correct, hasn't been proven in court) is that something crossed the line. You're a whistleblower. That make you a hero. Nobody can question how much of a hero you are.