Tesla worked with the FBI to thwart a million ransomware attack

The young Russian citizen and his accomplices remained just a short distance from carrying out a large ransomware attack on Tesla. They did not know that their target had already turned them over to the FBI. Last week, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) filed a criminal complaint against the organizers of a failed attack against electric car manufacturer Tesla.

Ransomware attack thwarted

On August 22, the office arrested a 27-year-old Russian citizen, Pavel Kriuchkov, in Los Angeles, who allegedly spent most of his stay in the United States trying to recruit a Tesla Gigafactory employee in Nevada to collaborate on a special project.

This “special project” came with a lucrative incentive – a bribe of $ 500,000, later up to $ 1 million. A small prepayment was to be made into the employee’s bitcoin wallet, installed using the Tor browser, to prevent detection. In return, the employee was asked to help install a targeted malware attack on Tesla. The plan had two stages involving a ddos ​​attack, followed by exfiltration of sensitive company data.

The plan was to demand a ransom from Tesla under threat of disclosure of all information. Kriuchkov’s accomplices were to see if the $ 4 million ransom had arrived.

Soon after Kriuchkov’s first meeting with an employee who wished to remain anonymous, a company worker alerted Tesla, who immediately informed the FBI. A series of August meetings between them were physically monitored and intercepted by FBI agents. They gathered information about the operation while preparations for a cyber attack were underway.

According to Kriuchkov’s communication, one of the accomplices was a hacker specializing in encryption, who allegedly works as a high-ranking employee of a government bank in Russia. Kriuchkov himself did not talk much about the technical aspects of the planned ransomware attack and allegedly received $ 250,000 for his recruitment efforts.

At an earlier meeting, Kriuchkov, a Tesla employee, and two of his friends took a trip to Lake Tahoe, California. Kriuchkov insisted on paying the group’s expenses. He avoided posing in group photos and said that he remembered the beauty of the sunset even without a memento.

On August 21, Kriuchov informed the worker that the attack had been postponed and would leave Nevada the next day. After his arrest in Los Angeles on August 22, he is now in custody until the trial.

Although Tesla is not mentioned in the FBI’s criminal complaint, the Teslarati news site confirmed that the company was the target. CEO Elon Musk praised the collaboration in Tweet:

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