For a brief period on Saturday, both Tesla’s website and twitter accounts were hacked. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had his personal twitter account hacked as well. Though the attacks did not last long, the hackers did manage to offer free Tesla cars, among other things.
The International Business Times reports:
Both Twitter accounts and Tesla’s site have since returned to normal. The takeover seemed to be relatively benign, with the hackers posting odd tweets filled with phone numbers to call to receive a free car. The initial takeover of Tesla’s account posted a phone number, called out random Twitter accounts and changed the company’s account name to #RIPPRGANG, the Verge reported. The number posted to Tesla’s account was to a computer repair shop in Illinois, Techcrunch reported.
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Tesla’s website was then hacked, the site’s homepage turned into a crude orange page with odd photos and videos layered over a Tesla car, a screenshot posted by the Verge showed. The site acknowledged it had been hacked, then taken offline but returned with the hijacked page several times, according to Techcrunch.
Later Musk’s Twitter account seemingly suffered a similar fate to that of his company’s. His account began posting odd tweets with phone numbers to call and addresses in Oswego, Illinois, and calling out accounts. Below is a screenshot of some of the tweets sent from Musk’s account with account names, addresses and phone numbers blacked out.
While Twitter hacks are not uncommon, the Verge suggested Tesla’s possible breach might have been more serious since the site was involved as well.
The electric car company is set to introduce a new home and utility scale battery next Thursday and will release its financial performance for the quarter ended March 31 on May 6. Some were disappointed the Thursday announcement wasn’t about a rumored Tesla motorcycle.
“Sorry, no motorcycle … but that was a creative guess,” Jeff Evanson, Tesla’s investor relations spokesman, said in an email to analysts.
