Tesla Factories And Warehouses Impacted In Massive Security-Camera Breach: Report

Tesla Inc. TSLA was among the several companies that were impacted by a massive security-camera breach, with hackers gaining access to live footage from the electric car maker’s factories and warehouses, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

What Happened: According to the report, a group of hackers breached security-camera data collected by Verkada Inc., a Silicon Valley startup that sells web-operated security camera systems.

The hackers claimed they gained access to 150,000 surveillance cameras inside companies, prisons, schools, police departments and schools. Some of the cameras, including in hospitals, used facial-recognition technology.

Tesla And Cloudflare Data Breach: The hackers reportedly said they gained access to 222 cameras in factories as well as warehouses run by Tesla and were able to view footage from a warehouse of the Elon Musk-led company in Shanghai that showed workers on an assembly line.

See also: How to Invest in Tesla Stock

Another major company whose footage was exposed in the data breach was Cloudflare Inc. NET, with the hackers obtaining access to the software provider’s offices in New York, San Francisco, Austin and London. The hackers also said they were able to view video from inside the offices of Verkada itself and gained access to the full video archive of all Verkada customers.

One of the hackers, Tillie Kottmann, told Bloomberg that he was part of an international hacker collective that carried out the data breach to show the ease with which systems can be broken into and “just how broadly we’re being surveilled.”

Why It Matters: The data breach shows how companies need to take more effective steps to deal with the threat of cyberattacks that have increased in intensity amid the pandemic. It also shows how hackers could take data from companies, including Tesla, hostage in exchange for ransom funds.

Tesla was the target of a ransomware attack a few months ago. It was reported in August last year that a Russian citizen, Egor Igorevich Kriuchikov, allegedly offered an unnamed Russian-born Tesla employee $1 million in cash or Bitcoin BTC/USD in exchange for inserting malware into Tesla's system that would allow hackers to occupy the automaker's information security team. He was later arrested in connection with the case.

Price Action: Tesla shares closed 19.6% higher at $673.54 on Tuesday and rose almost 2.3% in the after-hours session. Cloudflare closed 12.4% higher at $69.43 and added 1.5% in the after-hours session.

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