Canadian hacker arrested for allegedly stealing data from Texas Republican Party

A Canadian man is going through fees within the U.S. for allegedly hacking into methods utilized by the Texas Republican Occasion and stealing delicate data. 

Aubrey Cottle, 37, was arrested final Wednesday in Canada, the place he’s additionally going through fees.

The Justice Division unsealed a September 2024 grievance and arrest warrant accusing Cottle of having access to the methods of Epik, a third-party internet hosting firm for the web sites for the Texas Republican Occasion and the Texas Proper to Life anti-abortion group. 

In response to prosecutors, Cottle breached Epik “to deface and obtain a backup of Texas Republican Occasion’s net server, which contained private figuring out data.”

Cottle then allegedly shared the stolen information on-line and allowed anybody to obtain it earlier than publicly taking credit score for the assault on social media. Police searches of his units allegedly turned up information stolen from the Texas Republican Occasion.

The legal grievance, filed within the Western District of Texas, fees Cottle with “unlawfully transferring, possessing, or utilizing a way of identification” in furtherance of against the law.  He’s going through a most sentence of 5 years in jail if convicted. 

The grievance contains images of Cottle taking credit score for the assault in chats on Discord and in a TikTok submit the place he additionally claimed to be behind the leak. The raid on Cottle’s residence in Ontario uncovered 20 terabytes of stolen information, prosecutors stated.

Identified on-line as “Kirtaner,” Cottle is a famed hacker and key member of the Nameless hacker collective. He has a big social media following and has appeared in a number of documentaries about Nameless and different aspects of his work. 

Cottle’s residence was raided in 2022 by Canadian police after he boasted of a number of hacks focusing on conservative organizations just like the crowdfunding web site GiveSendGo and the Freedom Convoy 2022 marketing campaign. In an interview with CyberScoop that yr, he confirmed that Canadian officers have been working with the FBI to analyze him. 

In 2021, the Nameless group took credit score for attacking Epik, which the corporate finally confirmed. 

Hackers defaced the Texas GOP web site and created a now-defunct web site internet hosting a long time of data stolen from Epik, arguing they took the motion in response to Texas’ newly-instituted abortion regulation. 

SCOOP: a bunch of “hackers on steroids” gained entry to a big dataset belonging to Epik, the net host of the Texas GOP web site, Texas Proper to Life web site, and anti-abortion snitch web site. pic.twitter.com/2meRX9CAPm

— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) September 13, 2021

In 2022, CNN reported that Cottle confirmed as much as a web-based press convention concerning the breach held by Epik CEO Rob Monster, who acknowledged Cottle’s presence within the chat and requested him if he was behind the incident. 

“I might by no means, ever, ever, ever admit to a federal crime in an area like this,” Cottle reportedly stated. Monster informed CNN that he believed Cottle was behind the assault on Epik. 

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