Electric-car maker Tesla sits in the heart of Silicon Valley, a place where software security is--or should be--a constant focus of attention.
Still, corporate websites present a juicy and visible target for hackers worldwide.
For a brief period Saturday afternoon, hackers appear to have taken over the Tesla Motors website and Twitter account.
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Shortly thereafter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Twitter account was also briefly hacked.
As noted by The Verge, the language of the attacks "suggested this was just an unsophisticated prank."
Elon Musk's Twitter account hacked, Apr 2015
The compromised website and tweets included a phone number that could be called that would supposedly get the caller a free car.
There were also tributes ("shoutouts") to random accounts--and the name on the Tesla account was changed to #RIPPRGANG.
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The rogue Tesla tweets were removed within less than an hour.
A subsequent hack to Elon Musk's Twitter account was detected and rectified even more quickly.
Tesla Motors security vulnberability reporting policy, Apr 2015
Green Car Reports reached out to Tesla Motors for a statement Saturday evening on the hacked site and accounts. As of Sunday morning, the company had not responded.
Unfortunately, it appears the hackers didn't read Tesla's site closely before altering it.
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The company posted a "Security Vulnerability Reporting Policy" in which it invites anyone to submit a report--suitably encoded--on any security lapses.
The hackers, it seems, took a different path.
[hat tips: Randall Hamlet, Brian Henderson]
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