A group of Russian hackers have been caught after a failed attempt to attack computers at Tesla with ransomware.
The detailed report which was shared by a news outlet, Electreck, said that the Russian hackers made attempts to install malware into the computers at Tesla in a bid to hold them for ransom when it is done.
To carry out the attack, a Russian staff at the Gigafactory that belonged to Tesla was contacted to infect the computers. Furthermore, the report said the Russian staff was promised Bitcoins worth $1 million, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) apprehended the hackers before the attack could be carried out.
FBI already filed a motion against Egor Kriuchkov
FBI has already published a memo where they stated that they had filed a motion against a particular Russian citizen, Egor Kriuchkov, who is the supposed leader of the Russian hackers.
According to Egor, they were planning to infect all the computers at the factory with malware to collect ransom from Tesla. In a bid to perfect his attack, Egor entered the US at the start of the summer and contacted another Russian who would help carry out the mission.
Presently, the FBI said they had not identified the Russian staff at Tesla, but Egor already told him he was getting $1 million in Bitcoin via the Thor browser if he could pull off the attack.
Russia staff helps the FBI apprehend Russian hackers
It was later discovered that the Russian speaking staff at Tesla decided to help prevent the attack at the Nevada-based Gigafactory instead of taking the $1 million bribe. After the contact, the staff was said to have looped Tesla in on the development and the company subsequently called the FBI.
Furthermore, the Tesla staff was instrumental in the arrest of the Russian hackers as he gathered massive information which enabled their arrests. The same Russian hacker group was behind the ransomware attack on CWT group which saw the company part with $4.5 million.
