Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford speaks to the Las Vegas Sun editorial board Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022.
Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023 | 5:43 p.m.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford is advising any former or current employees of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, Inc., may need to make updates to important personal information after thousands in the state were discovered to be impacted by a data breach.
The attorney general’s office and its consumer protection bureau have been corresponding with Tesla on how to proceed after a May security breach may have impacted 7,409 employees, according to a release sent Tuesday. The compromised information includes employee names, phone numbers, phone numbers, physical addresses and email addresses, the release stated.
“Protecting your identity and credit is both a company and personal obligation,” Ford said in a statement. “I want to inform everyone impacted by this incident that they have an opportunity to take advantage of complimentary services offered by Tesla, in addition to proactively taking additional safeguards. Anyone who is concerned about the status of their credit should take steps to ensure it is protected.”
As Tesla, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, does not have a public relations team, the Sun contacted Tesla’s investor relations department for comment. No press releases on Tesla’s website mention a security breach affecting employees.
Tesla officials estimate roughly 75,000 current and former employees nationwide were affected by the breach, Ford said in the release. CNN reported last month two former employees took the information and shared it with a German newspaper. Tesla, however, has seen no evidence the information has been “misused,” and the newspaper has stated it will not publish the information, Ford said.
In March, Gov. Joe Lombardo and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development approved a tax abatement package worth more than $330 million for a proposed $3.6 billion expansion of Tesla’s Gigafactory manufacturing plan in Storey County.
Company officials told GOED then the company currently employed 10,521 in Nevada with plans to hire an additional 3,000 workers when the new Storey County plant is completed, and the company had 127,855 employees globally as of January.
Tesla is offering all impacted employees 12 months of free enrollment in creditor Experian’s so-called IdentityWorks credit monitoring and identity detection service, and notices issued to current and former employees contain instructions on how to enroll.
Additionally, Ford’s office advises the following:
- Regularly monitor your credit. Each of the three major credit reporting bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, must provide one free credit report. By rotating through the three, Ford said, consumers can obtain a credit report at no cost every four months by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com and following the instructions.
- Place a temporary fraud alert on your credit report. If a business checks your credit and sees a fraud alert, the business is on notice that you may be a victim of identity theft and may take actions to verify your identity before extending you credit, Ford said. A fraud alert is valid for 90 days and can be renewed. Consumers only need to request a fraud alert with one of the three major reporting bureaus.
- Consider a security freeze on your credit. When a security freeze is requested, creditors cannot see your file and are thus less likely to open a new account in your name and extend credit to you, or someone claiming to be you, according to Ford. Credit freezes may need to be temporarily lifted if looking to obtain a loan, apply for employment or sign a new lease.
