Tesla’s Nevada facility targeted in failed ransomware extortion scheme

In a tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk solved a mystery involving a 27-year-old Russian, an insider at an unnamed corporation and an alleged million-dollar payment offered to help trigger a ransomware extortion attack on the firm.

Prosecutors declined to name the target, but Musk was happy to oblige.

According to the billionaire, the scheme took aim at the electric car company’s 1.9 million-square-foot factory in Sparks, Nevada, which makes batteries for Tesla vehicles and energy storage units.

This was a serious attack, Musk tweeted Thursday night, responding to a Tesla blog post that detailed the brazen scheme.

Defendant Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov tried to recruit a fellow Russian speaker who worked at the plant, according to a criminal complaint filed in US District Court in Nevada.