The attack on Tesla Motors began with a simple phone call
Last weekend, Tesla Motors' website and Twitter account were hijacked by people who just wanted to have fun.
They used their access to “deface” the company’s website and spammed a computer repair shop in Illinois, posting their number along with a promise of a free Tesla to anyone who called. The “free car” promotion was posted on the hijacked @TeslaMotors account, as well as the account used by Elon Musk, the company’s CEO.
Despite the uproar, the beginning of the attack was not complicated. According to a statement from Tesla, the problems began with a phone call to AT&T. Someone posing as a Tesla Motors employee convinced an AT&T service to forward the calls to a non-Tesla number.
The attackers then went to Network Solutions (which is responsible for TeslaMotors.com) and used the forwarded number to add a new contact email address to the domain admin account.
Once this was done, the passwords were reset, and because the attackers controlled the added email address, they were able to access the Network Solutions account, altering DNS and MX (mail exchanger / email) records. The MX changes also helped them take control of the Twitter accounts, which the attackers maintained for a few hours.
In short, this was a planned step-by-step troll attack.
The Tesla Motors incident highlights a complex problem for businesses. Support representatives are paid to help. Their job is to help their customer and make their business as positive as possible.
