Potential damage a company can suffer from information leaks has become a hard reality to face for Tesla‘s CEO, Elon Musk, who has expressed his disappointment at discovering that there is sabotage in the structure of his company. According to reports, the individual allegedly involved in the sabotage against Tesla, is a disgruntled employee for failing to obtain a promotion.
According to CNBC, Musk sent an e-mail to Tesla’s employees last Sunday, revealing that a co worker was engaged in a “fairly extensive and damaging sabotage” against the company. The agency published what seems to be a copy of the message in which Musk reported that the attack included the use of false usernames to change the codes used in Tesla’s operating and manufacturing system, as well as exporting a large amount of sensitive information to unknown third parties.
As Musk points out, when an individual collaborates in this kind of attack, the motive is usually revenge. “His stated motive is that he wanted a promotion he did not receive. After these actions, not promoting him was definitely the right move”, said the CEO.
According to information security training specialists, this is a major reminder as to why privileged access management is mandatory for organizations that handle sensitive and personal information.
Nevertheless, a recent survey for information security training and information technology professionals ranked in a low position this kind of threats, whit just the 36% considering malicious insiders as a serious threat.
Reports from specialists of the International Institute of Cyber Security claim that this can be considered a variant of cyber crime, and may have affected any company anywhere. The internal threat arises, there are altered data affecting the operating systems of the company, there is leaked information; all, apparently, in the hands of a disgruntled employee. Experts in computer security and information security training say it’s time to prioritize these types of threats at high level.
Working as a cyber security solutions architect, Alisa focuses on application and network security. Before joining us she held a cyber security researcher positions within a variety of cyber security start-ups. She also experience in different industry domains like finance, healthcare and consumer products.
