Federal prosecutors in Western Washington took charge against the jury on Thursday a Swiss citizen accused by the US of hacking into dozens of companies and government agencies.
Tillie Kottman, a 21-year-old hacker, has reportedly taken credit for break-ins at major U.S. companies such as Nissan and Intel, according to Bloomberg, who reported news of a violation at a California-based security camera company last week; another hack that Kottmann has reportedly claimed.
US attorneys allege that Kottmann, in collaboration with others online, obtained stolen credentials and gained access to secure systems to steal confidential data and code. The stolen data was hosted on a private website seized by the FBI, as well as Telegram and other services, charging papers say.
Prosecutors say the notable targets include a security equipment company, a tactical equipment manufacturer, a car manufacturer and a financial investment company.
A hackers’ website would once contain data from more than 100 companies, including Adobe, Toyota, Pepsi, Microsoft, AMD, Motorola, GE Appliances, Disney, Nintendo and more.
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Cyber-intel news site The Record reports that Kottmann relied on misconfiguration to access and link protected data at the FBI industry warning October warning for hackers who take advantage of default password settings in business and government software.
The FBI said it is working closely with the Swiss authorities performed a search of Kottmann’s apartment last week in Lucerne, Switzerland, reportedly seizing electronic devices.
The raid followed reports of a security breach at Verkada, a Silicon Valley security camera startup, of which Bloomberg reported Kottmann is taking credit. The search of Kottmann’s house was reportedly part of a separate investigation at the time.
The US investigation into Tillmann, who uses these pronouns, is supported by police officers in Lucerne and the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, officials said.
“Stealing credentials and data, and publishing source code and proprietary and sensitive information on the web is not secure speech, it is theft and fraud,” US acting attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in a statement. “These actions can increase vulnerability for everyone from large corporations to individual consumers.”
“Clad in a supposedly altruistic motif does not take away the criminal stench of such burglary, theft and fraud,” she added.
Prosecutors say Kottmann – who Bloomberg describes as having an “anti-intellectual property ideology” – is just one member of a collective behind the hacks.
In the case of Verkada, the group got access to the live feeds of some 150,000 surveillance cameras in prisons, schools, police departments and more.
Kottmann is represented by Marcel Bosonnet, who acted as lawyer for Edward Snowden in Switzerland.