Tag Archive for: Tesla

Live news: Elon Musk says Tesla open to acquiring mining company

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Ukraine’s transmission network operator has suspended contractual obligations to transport gas through one of its key pipelines with Russia because of enemy troop activity, in a move that could cut flows to Europe.

The gas transmission system operator of Ukraine said that transit would halt at 7am on Wednesday at the Sokhranivka point along the smaller of two pipelines that deliver gas from Russia. It said it was unable to carry out operations at a border compression station in Luhansk — a region of Ukraine that Moscow claims as an independent state — because of the Russian occupation.

“The interference of the occupying forces in technical processes and changes in the modes of operation of gas transmission system facilities, including unauthorised gas offtakes from the gas transit flows, endangered the stability and safety of the entire Ukrainian gas transportation system,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The gas transmission system operator of Ukraine said that almost one-third of Russian supplies that go via the country to Europe would be affected, but it would still be possible to fulfil the needs of its European customers by rerouting gas to the Sudzha connection point.

Ukraine’s pipeline operator has previously cautioned that war-related damage to the system could endanger flows, but it is the first time since the invasion that it has declared force majeure, highlighting the risks to the supply of Russian gas to Europe.

Last year, EU states imported 155bn cubic metres of Russian gas, of which roughly 40 bcm transited through Ukraine. Nord Stream 1, the largest pipeline running from Russia to Germany, has the capacity to take 55 bcm.

The announcement of the halt sent future contracts tied to the European wholesale gas price benchmark nearly 6 per cent higher on Tuesday to almost €100 per megawatt hour, overturning earlier losses.

Yuriy Vitrenko, chief executive of Ukraine’s state gas company Naftogaz, pinned the blame on the Russian side. “Gazprom has been duly notified that Ukraine is no longer responsible for gas transit through territories occupied by Russia,” Vitrenko said.

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Tesla files suit against former engineer for allegedly stealing Project Dojo’s secrets

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Tesla has filed suit against former engineer Alexander Yatskov for allegedly stealing confidential information related to the company’s Project Dojo supercomputer, which the company will be using to train its self-driving neural networks. 

According to Tesla, Yatskov downloaded confidential and tightly guarded information about Dojo on his personal devices. What’s worse is that when Tesla found out about his actions, Yatskov reportedly tried to cover his tracks by surrendering a “dummy” computer instead, which contained none of the stolen information. 

Yatskov began his tenure at Tesla as a thermal engineer in January, where he aided in the design of the Dojo supercomputer’s cooling systems. Tesla noted in its complaint that Yatskov had access to Dojo’s cooling information and other confidential information related to the neural net training supercomputer. 

Tesla stated that Yatskov had violated his non-disclosure agreement (NDA) by “removing Tesla confidential information from work devices and accounts, accessing it on his own personal devices, and creating Tesla documents containing confidential Project Dojo details on a personal computer.” The former engineer was reportedly caught sending emails with classified Tesla information from his personal email address to his work email. 

Tesla remarked that Yatskov actually admitted to storing classified information on his own devices when he was confronted by the company. He was placed on administrative leave starting April 6 and asked to bring in his devices so Tesla could recover any stolen information. Yatskov reportedly provided Tesla with a device, though the company noted that it was a “dummy” since it contained none of the stolen information. 

Yatskov formally resigned from Tesla on May 2. When asked for a comment by Bloomberg, the former Tesla engineer declined to provide a statement about the matter. Tesla, for its part, is looking to receive compensatory and exemplary damages. The company is also seeking to secure an order that would stop Yatskov from disseminating Dojo’s trade secrets. 

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Tesla hack shows how vulnerable third-party apps may make cars

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A German teenager says he found a vulnerability in an app installed in some Teslas, which allowed him the ability to unlock doors, flash headlights and blast music. The hack highlights the relative lack of oversight in apps that some drivers can download to their cars.David Colombo identified a vulnerability in TeslaMate, a third-party app that some Tesla owners use to analyze data from their vehicle. He was able to access 25 Teslas that use the app, and he did not have access to steering, braking or acceleration, which could be especially dangerous.The exploit did unlock a litany of potential unwelcome possibilities for drivers, the hacker said.”Imagine music blasts at max volume and every time you want to turn it off it just starts again or imagine every time you unlock your doors they just lock again,” Colombo, the 19-year-old behind the hack, wrote in a Medium post. Colombo said that he could even track the location of Tesla vehicles as their owners went about their day.Colombo told CNN Business that he immediately reported the vulnerability that enabled the hack to involved parties, including Tesla. Colombo leads a cybersecurity company, and it is not uncommon for security researchers to seek out software vulnerabilities for potential compensation. Tesla offers cash incentives to people who report flaws in its software, but Colombo said he wasn’t paid as the vulnerability was in a third-party app, not Tesla infrastructure.(TeslaMate and Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.)Cars, including Teslas, have been hacked before. But cybersecurity experts believe this is the first time a vehicle has been hacked through an app that has been granted access direct access to some vehicle controls and data. TeslaMate software is installed on a computer that is not the vehicle, and then accesses the vehicle through its interface for apps. Apps can delight drivers with services their car wouldn’t otherwise have, as well as create new revenue for automakers through app-related fees.But cybersecurity experts caution that the auto industry must mature, as there are growing risks as in-car apps become increasingly common in the years ahead.” need to think about self-defending…

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Let’s make the teen Tesla hack a teachable moment

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The buzz about 19-year-old Tesla hacker David Colombo is well deserved. A flaw in third-party software allowed him to remotely access 25 of the world’s leading EV manufacturer’s vehicles across 13 countries. The hacker shared that he was able to remotely unlock the doors, open the windows, blast music and start each vehicle.

The vulnerabilities he exploited aren’t in Tesla’s software, but in a third-party app, so there are some limits to what Colombo could accomplish; he couldn’t do anything in the way of steering or speeding up or slowing down. But he was able to open the doors, honk the horn, control the flashlights and gather private data from the hacked vehicles.

EVs are fun. They are superbly connected, constantly updated and offer a great user experience, but they are cars, not mobile phones. Assaf Harlel

For cybersecurity pros, such remote code execution or stealing app keys is a daily occurrence, but my hope is that we don’t become so desensitized to breach disclosures that we miss the opportunity to use this one as a teachable moment to educate stakeholders across the connected car ecosystem.

This compromise is a cybersecurity hygiene 101 issue, and frankly, a mistake that shouldn’t happen. The third-party software in question may have been a self-hosted data logger, as Tesla suddenly deprecated thousands of authentication tokens the day after Colombo posted his Twitter thread and notified them. Some other Twitter users supported this idea, noting that the default configuration of the app left open the possibility of anyone gaining remote access to the vehicle. This also tracks with Colombo’s initial tweet claiming the vulnerability was “the fault of the owners, not Tesla.”

Recent automotive cybersecurity standards SAE/ISO-21434 and UN Regulation 155 mandate automakers (aka OEMs) to perform threat analysis and risk assessment (TARA) on their entire vehicle architecture. Those regulations have made OEMs accountable for cyber risks and exposures. The buck stops there.

It is somewhat awkward that a sophisticated OEM such as Tesla oversaw the risk of opening up its APIs to third-party applications. Low quality apps may not be well-protected, enabling…

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