Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla was the target of a ransomware attack.

The attempted attack, believed to be by a Russian hacker, was shut down by the FBI.

Describing the attack as “serious”, Musk confirmed on Twitter that an employee at a Tesla factory in Nevada was offered $1-million and an upfront payment of 1 bitcoin to install ransomware software on the Tesla’s network.

The employee instead alerted other Tesla staff who contacted the FBI.

Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, a 27-year-old Russian national, was arrested on 22 August. He was charged last week and faces up to five years in prison.