Elon Musk confirms 'serious' cyberattack on Tesla by Russian citizen

Days after US Justice Department informed about arrest of Russian citizen over role in introducing malware into an ‘unnamed’ company, X CEO Elon Musk has confirmed on Thursday, August 27 that it was, in fact, electric car maker Tesla that was subjected to a “serious attack”. Replying to an article shared by company’s news website Teslarati, that talked about how Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov was a part of a well-financed and organised scheme, Musk replied, “much appreciated”.

US Justice Department had said that 27-year-old Kriuchkov was arrested on August 22 on charge of conspiring to intentionally cause dam to a protected computer by attempting to recruit an employee to introduce malware into a system. statement had also revealed that specific malware was intended to extract data from network and n to threaten company for ransom money. 

US Justice Department had also said that Kriuchkov had promised employee an incentive of $1 million to do deed. However, worker ended up alerting FBI leading to Russian citizen’s arrest. From Kriuchkov contacting Russian-speaking, n-US citizen working at Tesla’s Gigafactory Nevada in July to hacker revealing how he and his team received a ransom worth over $4 million from a high profile company, company elaborated how entire attack played out against company. 

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Elon Musk becomes centibillionaire

Tesla confirmed cyberattack a day after Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s net worth also witnessed a record surge and became a ‘centibillionaire', joining Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Elon Musk got to celebrate a wealthy milestone as markets closed on Wednesday, August 26, as his net worth reached $101 billion and is still fourth-richest. Reportedly Tesla Inc shares also piked by 6 per cent during latest trading session. In year stricken with unprecedented circumstances, Tesla CEO bagged $73.6 billion.

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