A Russian national in a U.S. jail just pleaded guilty to trying to hack Tesla’s computer network. His plot started with an attempt to hack an employee at the company and recruit that person to become an insider threat.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nevada explains the crux of the Russian man’s sheme:
“According to court documents and admissions made in court, from July 15, 2020, to Aug. 22, 2020, Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27, conspired with others to recruit an employee of a large U.S. company to transmit malware provided by the conspirators into the company’s computer network. Once the malware was installed, Kriuchkov and his co-conspirators would use it to exfiltrate data from the company’s computer network and then extort the company by threatening to disclose the data.”
