Tesla’s cloud computing platform was briefly hijacked by hackers, the company has confirmed. Elon Musk’s firm was alerted to the attack by security research firm RedLock, which stated that the attack was a cryptojacking.
Cyptojacking is where hackers install software on other people’s computers without their knowledge in order to mine cryptocurrency.
“The RedLock CSI team immediately reported the incident to Tesla and the issue was quickly rectified,” says a RedLock statement. Tesla has confirmed that the security flaw was addressed “within hours” and that no customer data was stolen, reports the BBC.
The effects of the hack were said to be limited to engineering test cars used internally at Tesla, with no risk to the safety of the company’s consumer vehicles.
The hackers were able to locate log-in details for Tesla’s Amazon Web Services cloud platform on a Kubernetes console – an application management system — which was not password protected. The researchers noted that the hackers used “sophisticated evasion measures” to carry out the attack.
Tesla is said to have paid RedLock $3,133.70 (around £2,244) for uncovering the security breach, reports Fortune.
Cyrptojacking is becoming increasingly widespread as the value of cryptocurrencies booms and hackers shift their focus from stealing data to hijacking compute power from public cloud platforms.
Last year, RedLock uncovered similar cryptojacking attacks on insurance firm Aviva and Gemalto, the world’s largest SIM card maker.
Earlier this month, thousands of government websites were hit by a cryptojacking hack, including the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office and the Student Loan Company.
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