Tesla sues ex-employee for hacking, theft, and leaking to the press

[rory096]

Lawsuit is available here: DocumentCloud https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4529155-Gov-Uscourts... or Scribd https://www.scribd.com/document/382194076/Tesla-lawsuit

(17 line summary is on page 2)

It's based substantially on the "scrap material" leak to Business Insider published June 4: http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-model-3-scrap-waste-hig...

[hoorayimhelping]

Can't copy/paste but that lawsuit says that he admitted to writing software that stole information and for trying to hire others to do the same when confronted about it with evidence.

As a layman, that seems pretty damming to me, but who knows, it may not mean anything. I wonder if he had an opportunity to speak with a lawyer before admitting that he did that.

[product50]

No it is not. There are other probably more important allegations in the lawsuit as well - such as periodically exporting gbs of data outside Tesla to unnamed third parties.

[unit91]

From the court filing:

> 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.

Good grief, that's nasty.

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4529155/Gov-Uscou...

[catherinezng]

Maybe another perspective is that Tripp is a whistleblower. See:

"But Tripp told CNN he was fired within the last week and sued by Tesla because he was trying to warn investors and the public about problems at the electric carmaker. He said that he discovered that 1,100 damaged battery modules were installed in Model 3 cars that are on the road today. He said that he was also concerned about excessive scrap that is being stored in a dangerous manner on Tesla's property in Nevada that will be expensive to safely dispose of in the future. And he claims that Tesla inflated the number of Model 3's it made when it said it had built 2,020 of the cars in the seven days prior to a much anticipated April 3 report. Tripp said the actual number is closer to 1,900."

http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/20/technology/tesla-sues-employ...

[masonic]

  he was trying to warn investors

Whistleblowers don't warn investors, they contact regulators.

[Someone1234]

So has law enforcement been contacted or not? If what Tesla claims he did (data theft, sabotage) were true, that's definitely violating federal law. If they choose not to ask for e.g. FBI assistance, I'd be curious to know their reasoning.

[hermitdev]

Having worked at a hedge fund that suffered a data theft, I'd expect the criminal charges, if any, to come several months from now. It takes time for the police to build their case, collect evidence, interview possible witnesses or suspects, etc. All that happens before formal charges are filed. A lawsuit can be filed immediately.

[TangoTrotFox]

The lawsuit mentions a wide array of statutes the individual allegedly violated, including numerous felonies. It'd certainly be peculiar if criminal charges were not also pursued.

[nodesocket]

It's funny the HN post and comments on Monday were critical of Elon, saying he's overacting, being "anti-ceo" and fear mongering.

It certainly seems like he was rightfully critical and agressive on Monday now that all the facts have come out.

[CPLX]

Most people do not consider one side of a lawsuit to be "all the facts"

[Animats]

This is a desperation move by Musk. Nothing in the complaint alleges interference with Tesla production. Just that the ex-employee leaked some data on Tesla's internal screwups. Yet Musk claimed this was an excuse for Tesla missing their 5000 units/week goal yet again. (Actual production is about 1500 units/week right now.[1])

Also, this is someone at the battery factory in Nevada, not the auto plant in Fremont. So this is totally unrelated to the auto plant problems.

Tesla will have a hard time showing actual losses from this.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tesla-tracker/

[rory096]

For some clarification, since I got mixed up on this too, there were two separate emails this week — one about this employee, then the next morning one about this fire that "stop[ped] the body production line for several hours" (and vaguely insinuated sabotage).

Martin Tripp email, Sunday 11:57pm: "I was dismayed to learn this weekend about a Tesla employee who had conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations..." (scroll down for text) https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/elon-musk-email-employee-con...

The fire email, Monday 9:38am: "Late last night we had another strange incident that was hard to explain. Small fire on the body-in-white production line..." https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/elon-musk-email-tesla-factor...

[brookside]

While Tesla's claims are probably largely accurate, I agree this seems like a distraction / side narrative for when they don't hit their stated goals and need to raise more money ASAP.

Worked at a startup that used the "we had saboteurs in our midst, but they were discovered and now things will improve" story on the eve of needed new financing round. The story was somewhat accurate but had very little to do with the overall arc of growth or progress.

Tesla will need something to say about why they didn't make their targets, and this is going to be one of the things said.

[twhb]

Musk says 3500/wk as of the 16th. Bloomberg says their model is slow to catch sudden increases in output.

[tomp]

> Yet Musk claimed this was an excuse for Tesla missing their 5000 units/week goal yet again.

Citation?

[GreenPlastic]

I don't really believe that he was using it as an excuse to miss production targets because a) it was an internal memo and not a public press release and b) if he was full of crap and trying to use that as an excuse, his employees would know and see through it.

[Diederich]

> Yet Musk claimed this was an excuse ...

Citation on that? Thanks.

[protonimitate]

Kind of off topic - but how much hands-on would someone like Musk have in this situation? Wouldn't the Tesla legal team be making the calls on this one, or is Musk the final shot caller on legal issues like this?

[gamblor956]

It's a huge concern that Musk (via his earlier tweets) blamed an employee in the Gigafactory in Sparks, NV for issues with Tesla production at the Fremont, CA factory 240 miles away.

[product50]

IP theft is a big deal regardless of whether Tesla sufferred from it or not. In the long term, Tesla will most likely suffer if other companies/countries know the trade secrets.

[compcoffee]

>This is a desperation move by Musk. Nothing in the complaint alleges interference with Tesla production.

It seems pretty obvious to me: this ex-employee stole (which is scummy) data from Tesla and leaked it to journalists (Business Insider). BI asked Tesla to comment on the data, they refused, then released an "email" that described the sabotage and data breach.

Is he a whistle-blower or a saboteur? That's the question.

[outworlder]

> Also, this is someone at the battery factory in Nevada, not the auto plant in Fremont. So this is totally unrelated to the auto plant problems.

Right, completely unrelated, because Tesla cars do not require batteries. Or software, which was also tampered with.

Tesla has filed a lawsuit, they are not coming up with excuses. At no point in the internal memo do they say this is the reason why they are missing their targets.

> Tesla will have a hard time showing actual losses from this.

To a judge, or to shareholders? Because this employee is done for. People got criminally charged and slapped with multi-decade jail time for way less.

[dekrg]

Data theft is an pretty interesting way to frame giving information to the media.

[function_seven]

If we take the complaint at face value, it seems like a straightforward description. Tripp is alleged to have installed software on other employees’ computers to extract the information.

Also, giving information to the media isn’t necessarily an honest act of whistleblowing. Depends on what you’re exposing and if it’s accurate in the first place.

[ntaylor]

He allegedly transmitted photography of Tesla's internal manufacturing systems.

For a company that prides itself in it's manufacturing process (even if it isn't as-promised), it seem like this could even be perceived as IP theft.

[gwern]

The lawsuit also accuses him of fabricating/editing the data in question before sending to the media...

[spiderPig]

Seems a little far fetched for a process technician to make “direct code changes to operating system code” though

[fragsworth]

A saboteur would be more sophisticated than a real process technician. Maybe Tesla's internal security isn't that great?

[sunstone]

It would be interesting to know if this employee was also shorting Tesla stock at the same time he was leaking these allegations.

[trumped]

Isn't Tesla supposed to be really open? ie: "All Our Patent Are Belong To You | Tesla" *1

1. https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

[AdamM12]

Seems like there will be a CFAA charge right around the corner

[mlindner]

Glad to hear they're suing him. The interesting question is if he was hired by some outside agency to join Tesla to do this. He was only at the company for 3-4 months before "complaining of not getting a raise". That's a very short period of time. My bet is that is that's a lie to hide the real reason. Hopefully they get access to his call history to see what companies he communicated with.

Also shame on the author for Editorializing the title. The true article title is "Tesla sues ex-employee for hacking, theft, and leaking to the press"

[dayaz36]

That's exactly what I was thinking. I don't buy that he went through all of this merely for not getting promoted. Especially since he's only been at the company for a few months. Definitely working with outside entities.

[gwern]

The lawsuit doesn't mention raises, it says that he was angry over, specifically, being transferred to another job after clashing with coworkers/managers.

[wilsonnb2]

Seems more like a conspiracy theory than an interesting question to me.