Tesla sued a former employee Wednesday for allegedly hacking into the electric car maker’s computer system and stealing several gigabytes worth of confidential trade secrets.
Attorneys for Tesla filed a lawsuit in Nevada federal court accusing Martin Tripp, a former process technician at its Gigafactory near Reno, of pilfering proprietary data and subsequently sharing it with individuals outside of the company.
Tesla’s investigators approached Mr. Tripp about the accusations last week and ultimately secured a confession, attorney Joshua Sliker alleged in Wednesday’s complaint.
“Tesla has only begun to understand the full scope of Tripp’s illegal activity, but he has thus far admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla’s manufacturing operating system (‘MOS’) and to transferring several gigabytes of Tesla data to outside entities. This includes dozens of confidential photographs and a video of Tesla’s manufacturing systems,” wrote Mr. Sliker.
“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,” Tesla’s attorney added. “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.”
An attorney for Mr. Tripp was not immediately listed in the case’s court docket and could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Tripp started work with Tesla last October as a process technician, according to Tesla’s lawsuit.
“As part of his job, Tripp had access to highly sensitive information relating to, among other things, certain facets of the manufacturing process for the company’s battery modules,” Tesla’s attorney wrote.
More recently, Mr. Tripp was reassigned to a new role in May after becoming combative with his colleagues, Mr. Sliker added.
“Thereafter, Tripp retaliated against Tesla by stealing confidential and trade secret information and disclosing it to third parties, and by making false statements intended to harm the company,” the lawsuit alleges.
Despite signing a non-disclosure agreement with the company, Mr. Tripp allegedly divulged confidential and properties information to outsiders, according to the lawsuit, albeit “combined with fabricated data and other false information” with the intent of harming Tesla.
“Tripp also made false claims to the media about the information he stole,” Mr. Sliker added. “For example, Tripp claimed that punctured battery cells had been used in certain Model 3 vehicles even though no punctured cells were ever used in vehicles, batteries or otherwise. Tripp also vastly exaggerated the true amount and value of ‘scrap’ material that Tesla generated during the manufacturing process, and falsely claimed that Tesla was delayed in bringing new manufacturing equipment online.”
The lawsuit accuses Mr. Tripp of violating the Nevada Defend Trade Secrets Act, the Nevada Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the Nevada Computer Crimes Law, as well as breaching both his contract with Tesla and his fiduciary duty of loyalty. The company is seeking money damages, fees and costs to be determined at trial.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk alluded to the lawsuit earlier this week in an email sent to employees warning that a colleague had committed “extensive and damaging sabotage.”
“We need to figure out if he was acting alone or with others at Tesla,” wrote Mr. Musk. “As you know, there are a long list of organizations that want Tesla to die,” he added.
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