Tesla Inc, cloud systems which are being hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) were being exploited by hackers to mine cryptocurrency since January this year. And the activity was discovered on Tuesday by a team of researchers from Redlock who also confirmed that the cyberattack took place via unprotected Kubernetes console of automaker Tesla.
Technically speaking, a Kubernotes Console also called as Kubernetes Console is used to automate deployment, scalability, and operations of application containers on cloud environments.
Kubernetes system is open source software developed by Google and used by numerous corporate firms across the world. But in the case of Tesla cyberattack, an unsecured console exposed access credentials to hackers allowing them to mine cryptocurrency on the Amazon Web Services environment.
Redlock Cloud Security Intelligence team discovered that the hackers were using Tesla’s cloud systems to mine cryptocurrency via Cryptojacking.
For those who are not aware of Cryptojacking, it is nothing but the usage of computing power to mine cryptocurrency without authorization.
In this case, hackers were using Tesla’s cloud-based computing power to fill their own pockets by mining cryptocurrency.
Although details about the mined currency and the amount gathered in dollars in unavailable, researchers from Redlock have confirmed that crypto jacking activity on Tesla cloud systems was happening from early January this year.
Tesla has reacted to the news and confirmed that no sensitive data was compromised in the event. But a source from Tesla who likes to be anonymous said that the automaker is known store sensitive data like vehicle telemetry on the cloud platform of AWS.
Redlock has released its 2018 Cloud Security trends report in which it predicts that 8 percent of organizations will face attacks by crypto jackers in this year; due to lack of ineffective network monitoring tools on major cloud platforms.
