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Elon Musk emails employees about 'extensive and damaging sabotage' by employee

cnbc.com

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Re: Elon Musk emails employees about 'extensive and damaging sabotage' by employee

#411

Post by rorykoehler »

cottsak wrote: post #84
flyingswift wrote: post #65

I made this same comment on the other discussion. I find it concerning that one person was able to push malicious code to 'production'. To me, this suggests that Tesla, a company building highly sensitive software, does not employ basic branch policies. How is is it that these changes could have made it through a code review process and get deployed? If a company like Microsoft or Google announced that a disgruntled…

This is a very naive comment. There will always be a small handful of engineers that can push the button to move code into PROD or even change code in PROD live. Ideally, with mature controls, the people in this list is short. But to jump to the conclusion that Tesla doesn't use good practises is very short sighted. Who's to say that external parties didn't target this person specifically because of their role/influe…

A good system will ensure that others are notified when this happens. For critical stuff you could also require 2 keys to push code to production so no one individual can do it alone.

Re: Elon Musk emails employees about 'extensive and damaging sabotage' by employee

#413

Post by rorykoehler »

alxlaz wrote: post #339
cottsak wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very naive comment. There will always be a small handful of engineers that can push the button to move code into PROD or even change code in PROD live. Ideally, with mature controls, the people in this list is short. But to jump to the conclusion that Tesla doesn't use good practises is very short sighted. Who's to say that external parties didn't target this person specifically because of their role/influe…

Obviously, not all details are available, but the wording in the email suggests that the parent comment is anything but naive: > This included making direct code changes to the Tesla Manufacturing Operating System under false usernames and exporting large amounts of highly sensitive Tesla data to unknown third parties. This sounds like something out of the 1990s, that dark and romantic era of version control when we…

1. It may have gone through the review process but if there is a massive pressure to ship (which there verifiably is at Tesla) then the review part of the process will be the first to degrade quality wise. Inexcusable but realistic.

Re: Elon Musk emails employees about 'extensive and damaging sabotage' by employee

#414

Post by gota »

d0mine wrote: post #390
olivermarks wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People at Tesla are working incredibly hard, they just had a FTE mass layoff and are relying heavily on 'associates'. This reminds me of the darker days at Zappos with their holocracy business model and all powerful vanity CEO. It's not hard to imagine the disgruntled moving fast and breaking things in frustration

s/holocracy/holAcracy/

I wish I saw this before taking to google and becoming disappointed that no hierarchy based on holograms exists

Re: Elon Musk emails employees about 'extensive and damaging sabotage' by employee

#415

Post by stephengillie »

Fricken wrote: post #231
durkie wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you should reconsider your thoughts about this a bit. There is a genuine revolution underway being enabled by plummeting costs of producing lithium-ion batteries at scale. Whether or not Tesla will lead it (or even continue be part of it) is certainly up for debate, but large, real things are happening and saying "everyone ride a bike!" is ignoring a reality that isn't tainted by feelings about Tesla/Elon.

There isn't a revolution underway. Everyone switching to an electric personal automoblie won't save us from anything. We'll just be destroying the planet at a marginally slower rate. You don't get to have your cake and eat it too.

> You don't get to have your cake and eat it too.

The way to do this is to start with 2 cakes. But where is Earth2?

Re: Elon Musk emails employees about 'extensive and damaging sabotage' by employee

#416

Post by falsedan »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #341

To me this sounds like a major violation of SOX controls. If this is the case Tesla is in deep trouble with the SEC.

> major violation

> deep trouble

Serious: no they wouldn't. Their auditor would report the compliance failure and say, try harder next year ok!

Real: ah hah hahah hhaaaah hahahah ha lolll

Re: Elon Musk emails employees about 'extensive and damaging sabotage' by employee

#418

Post by killaken2000 »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #407
ubernostrum wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not trying to be mean here, but: you never wondered why so many people in Iran hated the US enough to call it the "Great Satan"? I know we've had a generation or so of leaders over here who just prattle on about "they hate us for our freedom", but I'm kind of boggled by the idea that people don't get curious and wonder what really set off the level of virulent hatred of the US (and European powers) that existed a…

I may be betraying ignorance (I always love to learn—thanks!), but before today, I assumed that had to do with the US being Israel’s closest ally, since Iran from the beginning has hated Israel for what I assumed were religious reasons, and the fact that a non-Islamic country has (parts of) Jerusalem after over 1000 years of wars over who gets to have it (many of which were at least partly religiously motivated — or…

There also issues of regime change which a nice way of putting a list of unsavory tactics and how regions of the middle east used to be quite progressive and modern before these tactics over the years had taken their toll on the region.

Re: Elon Musk emails employees about 'extensive and damaging sabotage' by employee

#419

Post by finnthehuman »

cottsak wrote: post #84
flyingswift wrote: post #65

I made this same comment on the other discussion. I find it concerning that one person was able to push malicious code to 'production'. To me, this suggests that Tesla, a company building highly sensitive software, does not employ basic branch policies. How is is it that these changes could have made it through a code review process and get deployed? If a company like Microsoft or Google announced that a disgruntled…

This is a very naive comment. There will always be a small handful of engineers that can push the button to move code into PROD or even change code in PROD live. Ideally, with mature controls, the people in this list is short. But to jump to the conclusion that Tesla doesn't use good practises is very short sighted. Who's to say that external parties didn't target this person specifically because of their role/influe…

>There will always be a small handful of engineers that can push the button to move code into PROD or even change code in PROD live.

What? Why?

Nobody on my development team has access to the production code signing keys. And nobody - at all - has the ability to remotely make a production system take an unsigned update.

Re: Elon Musk emails employees about 'extensive and damaging sabotage' by employee

#420

Post by rndgermandude »

finnthehuman wrote: post #419
cottsak wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very naive comment. There will always be a small handful of engineers that can push the button to move code into PROD or even change code in PROD live. Ideally, with mature controls, the people in this list is short. But to jump to the conclusion that Tesla doesn't use good practises is very short sighted. Who's to say that external parties didn't target this person specifically because of their role/influe…

>There will always be a small handful of engineers that can push the button to move code into PROD or even change code in PROD live. What? Why? Nobody on my development team has access to the production code signing keys. And nobody - at all - has the ability to remotely make a production system take an unsigned update.

But somebody has access to the signing keys/signing process. And somebody has access to the production machines. Etc.
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