Tesla begins notifying workers who were affected by data breach

By Eva Rothenberg, CNN

New York (CNN) — Tesla has begun notifying current and former employees whose information was included in a confidential data breach in May.

In a notice posted on the Maine Attorney General’s website on Friday, Tesla (TSLA) said an investigation had found “two former Tesla (TSLA) employees misappropriated the information in violation of Tesla (TSLA)’s IT security and data protection policies” and that the electric automaker had since filed lawsuits against them.

“These lawsuits resulted in the seizure of the former employees’ electronic devices that were believed to have contained the Tesla information,” Tesla said. The company added that it “also obtained court orders that prohibit the former employees from further use, access, or dissemination of the data, subject to criminal penalties.”

Tesla said that two former employees had shared the confidential data with German newspaper Handelsblatt. The outlet assured Tesla that it won’t publish the information and that it is “legally prohibited from using it inappropriately,” according to the notice.

Tesla emphasized that it had not detected any misuse of personal data, but has offered complimentary membership to Experian IdentityWorks’ credit monitoring and identity theft service. The membership will be one or two years, depending on the person and the specific engagement number on the letter they receive.

The data breach affected 75,735 people, and involved Social Security numbers, names and addresses, according to Maine Attorney’s General Office.

CNN has reached out to Tesla for comment.

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