This is how the Russian "conspiracy" against Tesla was hatched: bribes, wiretaps and secure mobiles

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There are times when it is difficult to

.

The line is fuzzy and its methods are common.

This is one of these cases.

It is the story of a conspiracy that straddles the sphere of international espionage and illicit profit motives.

Its protagonists are

: a mysterious man who flies from Moscow to the United States under a declared identity (about which there is no trace before these events) and a compatriot who emigrated to America to make his fortune as a Tesla employee.

Tesla's stock market value

.

The company is going through the sweetest moment in its history: it has recently become the largest manufacturer in the world by market capitalization.

A success that has not gone unnoticed by the world of crime, which has set its sights on Elon Musk's successful company looking to make its own August.

The objective?

Apparently, take control of the computer networks of the automobile company (accounting, customers, R&D, etc.) with the aim of hijacking them and then demanding a ransom.

However, the Russian criminal group's plan was truncated when the Tesla employee, who had been offered a million dollars, decided to report to the FBI.

The case, which has followed the channels of an incident of a criminal nature, is full of unknowns, doubts and chiaroscuro.

Despite having received the treatment of a common crime, the agent in charge of the investigation

) includes in his report that the alleged offender uses methods and techniques typical of a field agent during the operation of intelligence.

In his report, the federal agent makes several notes in this regard.

In addition, it

, about other large companies that allegedly would have been victims of the Russian organization before Tesla.

According to the FBI report, it is

.

The first contact relevant to the case between the Tesla employee (about whom not much information about his identity is provided and who has the

of

) and the member of the Russian organization (identified as Kryuchkov in the

of the FBI) ​​was made through WhatsApp.

However,

and had resumed communication through a third person (unidentified) at the end of July this year.

Two old acquaintances

When the protagonists returned to contact by WhatsApp, Kryuchkov told the Tesla employee his intention to visit him during a trip to the United States that he had planned.

Days later, Kryuchkov flew from Moscow to New York and

.

In addition, he took advantage of his stop in the Big Apple to

and paid for in cash.

Afterward, Kryuchkov flew from New York to San Francisco.

From there, he traveled in a rented car to Nevada, where his compatriot who worked at Tesla resided.

The first meeting between the two took place on August 1.

During the next three days,

.

During this time, both (in the company of several acquaintances of the worker) took the opportunity to make excursions to nearby natural places.

It was precisely in these escapades that Kryuchkov began to have

as revealed in the FBI document.

"During the excursions,

arguing that he did not need them to remember the beauty of the place. However, at the insistence of the rest of his fellow travelers, he ended up posing for a group picture. In addition He also did not use his mobile phone during this time, "the report states.

According to the agent in charge of the case, assigned to counterintelligence tasks and with 15 years of experience in the force, "individuals involved in criminal activities often

, avoid surveillance systems and do not take Photos".

During the trip, the assistants noticed that Kryuchkov insisted on paying all the expenses related to the escape.

This young 27-year-old Russian justified his expense by claiming that he

.

"I know, thanks to my training and experience, that people involved in intelligence operations and criminal activities often

front of people who try to recruit or incorporate into their criminal activities," says the federal agent.

At the end of this trip, Kryuchkov told the Tesla employee that he would like to

the next day.

"Special projects"

In this new face-to-face encounter they drank and

.

When they were both drunk enough, Kryuchkov piled up the cell phones, pushed them away, and jumped into the pool to try and

.

Kryuchkov told him that he worked for a "group" that paid employees of large companies large sums of money.

In return, they had to

into their employer's computer systems.

The young Russian boasted that

on various occasions against other relevant companies.

However, the names of the companies have been hidden from the FBI report submitted to the judge.

Kryuchkov also explained that the

of these "special projects" consisted of carrying out

.

One of them was carried out remotely over the internet in the form of a denial of services attack against a company.

An attack that the "group" knew had no real chance of success but was

to

.

Meanwhile, the actual attack took place from inside the company premises with a recruited employee who was in charge of infecting

the company's networks

with a malicious program,

.

The aim of the action was that the professionals in charge of computer security

while the internal attack was completed successfully.

Once the ruse was successfully executed, it was only necessary for "the group" to contact the company to

for

.

Something that they had already achieved with success in previous operations, as Kryuchkov himself confessed to his compatriot on different occasions, even mentioning names of large companies affected by this technique.

However,

.

For the operation against Tesla, the job of the Tesla employee would be to carry out the attack from within and his task was very simple:

with a virus into a computer connected to the company's network.

In exchange,

.

From buddy to informant

Days later, on August 7, Kryuchkov and his compatriot who works for the electric car company met again.

This time, the meeting took place inside a car.

However, they were not alone.

.

Sometime between August 3-7,

and contacted his company's security department.

He alerted them to his plans and they, in turn,

The worker had gone from being a possible accomplice to becoming an informant.

During the meeting in the car,

, who pretended to continue cooperating with the gang.

They even haggled over the reward, which amounted to $ 1 million.

Kryuchkov also offered the informant the possibility of

so that the traces of the crime would lead to a person of his choice.

"El Pachá" and "Kitten"

Over the next several weeks,

.

During this time they agreed that the worker would receive advance payment as a token of good faith.

To do this, they collaborated and planned a way to open a safe and "clean" wallet so that the advance was paid in Bitcoin.

However, the FBI had already managed to tap into the virtual wallet as another way to collect information about the case.

During their frequent encounters, the informant

(always hands-free through the mobiles that Kriuchov had).

The FBI document acknowledges that the Tesla employee spoke with a guy who used the alias "

" which the feds refer to with that nickname in official documents.

Pasha was the person responsible for approving the payments that the worker would receive for his collaboration with "the group."

Although it is not mentioned in the FBI report, "Pasha" is the Latin transcription of a Russian word of Turkish origin, which was used to designate a high leader of the Ottoman Empire, usually in the military sphere, so it is very likely this man was responsible for the group.

.

Another member of the band is only identified as "

".

A Russian diminutive whose translation is "

".

Kisa's task would be to "notify" (by means of a smiley face emoticon via WhatsApp) the Tesla employee of the starting signal for the operation.

Once the smiley face has been received, the worker should

provided by the Kryuchkov.

The phone had secure messaging applications installed.

Also, Kriuchkov indicated to the Tesla worker that he

(to make it difficult to trace) until further notice.

However, such instructions were never received as the FBI arrested Kryuchkov before the "group's" "special project" was launched.

He has been charged with a crime of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and is pending trial.

His cronies follow freedom and

.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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