Elon Musk (Photo : REUTERS/Rebecca Cook)
The Twitter account of Tesla CEO Elon Musk was recently hacked and defaced by pranksters, while Tesla's official website and company Twitter account was also hacked.
Musk's official Twitter account was hacked around 6:45 PM ET. The hackers changed the Tesla CEO's official Twitter handle to "OneTrueMusk" and posted tweets suggesting that the CEO was giving out free Tesla cars.
Musk's account appears to be back in order and the tweets posted by the hackers have been completely deleted, according to Benzinga.
Aside from Musk's Twitter account, the hackers were able to take control of the company's official Twitter account as well. The hack started around 5PM ET when Tesla's official account started tweeting strange messages. Some of the tweets suggested that the company is no longer in control of its own account.
One of the tweets posted include a phone number that, according to the tweet, when contacted will reward callers with free Tesla cars. Most of the tweets were just shoutouts to random Twitter accounts. The hackers also changed Tesla's Twitter account name to #RIPPRGANG, according to The Verge.
On Tesla's official website, a message was posted on its front page saying, "Hacked by Autismsquad!" A crudely done collage also replaced the company's official front page. Tesla was able to regain control of its official website but due to the extent of the damage the website is currently down. Musk assured that the company's website will back online once fixed.
Twitter accounts of various company's including Twitter employees has been a constant target for hackers. The latest Tesla hack simply shows that security flaws are still present on Twitter's system.
