The most talked about electric vehicle in the tech world, Tesla Motors, suffered a hack targeting its Twitter account Saturday. The company's CEO, Elon Musk, was also a victim.
Shortly after 4:30 p.m. ET, Tesla's Twitter account was taken over by unknown parties, with the message, "This twitter is now ran by @chf060 and @rootworx," and the Tesla name replaced by "#RIPPRGANG."
[seealso slug="hacked-uber-passwords-selling"]
However, neither account mentioned in the message has taken credit for the hack, and the owner of the @rootworx account has posted messages denying any connection to the incident.
The subsequent tweets to the account by the hackers included racial epithets and even a message offering a free Tesla to anyone calling a telephone number posted to the Twitter account. Musk's account also featured the car prank.
.@elonmusk hacked — Vipul Sahai (@vipulsahai) Apr 25 2015
The owner of the @rootworx account claims to have received numerous calls about a free Tesla following the hack, along with the denial of any connection to the cyber attack.
Subsequent messages posted to the Tesla account direct credit for the hack to a Twitter account name matching the earlier hashtag.
The takeover lasted just under an hour and, as of this writing, Tesla appears to have regained control of its account. Musk has also regained control of his account.
UPDATED 4 p.m. PT to include hackers' attack on Tesla CEO Elon Musk.