The Fed has laid criminal charges against a Swiss Swiss hacker who claimed credit for breaking over 150,000 security cameras run by Silicon Valley startups.
The Seattle grand jury indicted 21-year-old hacktivist Tillie Kottmann, who last week claimed the backdrop of a massive breach of the Verkada that allowed hackers to peek into prisons, schools, hospitals and key locations such as Tesla.
Prosecutors say Kottman, known as “Deletscape” and “Tilly Kremew” by the Monsters, has hacked dozens of companies and government agencies and published private data from more than 100 entities on the Internet.
Although there is no mention of Veerka attack, Thursday Prosecution Kottmann, who focuses on eight hacks, who use the pronouns him / them, was from February 2020 to January of this year.
Targets include six private companies, a federal contractor and the Washington State Department of Transport. Prosecutors did not name any firm, but details in the indictment Match up Kottman’s previous statements about Japanese automaker Nissan and their hack of computer-chip giant Intel.
Prosecutors noted that Kottman has openly claimed some of the hacks in Twitter posts, such as one from May 2020 saying, “I like helping companies open their source code.”
The Feds also claimed that Kottman and others promoted their hacking and “made money by hacking and selling clothing and design related to computer hacking activity and anti-intellectual-property ideology.”
Kottmann is still in Lucerne, Switzerland, but has been made aware of the allegations, which according to the players came nearly a week after the Swiss authorities issued a search warrant related to the alleged hack.
Kottmann did not immediately respond to a Twitter message seeking comment. But they Recently told Forbes He expected “consequences” for his hacking, which was intended to highlight poor security in powerful entities.
“I don’t want to help companies,” Kottmann told the outlet. “The whole hacker thing, in my opinion, should be more about trying to improve the world.”
However, idealism has not left federal prosecutors, who say that Kottmann could face decades in prison if he is convicted in the US.
US Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said, “Such an intrusion, theft, and fraud does not remove criminal odor from allegedly wrapping itself in a philanthropic motive” Statement.
With post wires
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