Ex-Tesla Employee Accused of Stealing Company Data Says He Is a 'Whistleblower,' Not a Hacker

Tesla has sued a former employee for alleged robbery and cyber hacking, but the defendant maintains he is a whistleblower and not a typical hacker.

Martin Tripp, the person who is against one of the most popular automakers on the market today, recently spoke up to defend himself in the media after previous claims from his former company that he hacked into its servers and collected confidential files.

“I am being singled out for being a whistleblower. I didn't hack into [the] system. The data I was collecting was so severe, I had to go to the media,” Tripp told CNNMoney in a report published on Wednesday. Tripp worked at the Nevada-based Tesla Gigafactory, where its cars’ lithium batteries are made.

In Tesla’s lawsuit against Tripp, the electric car company is requesting a court order that would allow investigators to search through Tripp’s devices and storage drives as well as his email and cloud accounts in hopes of scrubbing all the internal company documents that the ex-employee allegedly acquired while working at Gigafactory.

Tesla’s formal complaint accuses Tripp of hacking into company servers to obtain confidential papers and “trade secret information” that he allegedly gave to third parties. The company also claims that Tripp managed to install software into the Tesla servers which allowed him to continuously collect data even after leaving Gigafactory.

On Sunday, Tels CEO Elon Musk addressed the issue through an email sent to all Tesla employees, calling Tripp’s acts as a “sabotage.”

“As you know, there are a long list of organizations that want Tesla to die. These include Wall Street short-sellers, who have already lost billions of dollars and stand to lose a lot more. Then there are the oil & gas companies, the wealthiest industry in the world — they don't love the idea of Tesla advancing the progress of solar power & electric cars,” Musk said in the memo (via CNBC).

While it is not clear to whom Tripp leaked the information he allegedly obtained from Gigafactory, The Verge notes that Business Insider recently reported on unflattering manufacturing practices allegedly happening at the Gigafactory based on obtained “internal documents.”