Federal prosecutors in western Washington obtained an indictment against the jury on Thursday Swiss citizen accused by the US of hacking dozens of companies and government agencies.
Tillie Kottman, a 21-year-old hacker, allegedly took credit for intrusions into large US companies such as Nissan and Intel, according to Bloomberg, which reported on a violation at a California security camera company last week; another hack that Kottmann allegedly supported.
US lawyers claim that Kottmann, along with others online, acquired stolen credentials and accessed protected systems to steal confidential records and codes. The stolen data was hosted on a private website that was confiscated by the FBI, as well as on the Telegram and other services, tax newspapers say.
Prosecutors say the notable targets include a security device company, a tactical equipment manufacturer, an automobile manufacturer and a financial investment firm.
A hacker-run website is said at one point to have 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 the wrong configuration to access the protected data and linked it to the FBI alert in the industry in October warning about hackers exploiting default password settings in corporate and government software.
The FBI said it is working closely with the Swiss authorities, which performed a search from Kottmann’s apartment last week in Lucerne, Switzerland, allegedly confiscated electronic devices.
The raid followed reports of a security breach at Verkada, a start of the Silicon Valley security camera, for which Bloomberg reported that Kottmann had taken credit. The search for Kottmann’s home was reported as part of a separate investigation at the time.
Tillmann’s US investigation, which uses their pronouns, is being aided by police officers in Lucerne and the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, officials said.
“Theft of credentials and data and the publication of source code and proprietary and sensitive information on the web is not protected speech – it is theft and fraud,” said U.S. Attorney General Tessa M. Gorman in a statement. “These actions can increase the vulnerabilities of everyone, from large corporations to individual consumers.”
“Wrapping with a supposedly altruistic motive does not remove the criminal stench from such intrusions, thefts and frauds,” she added.
Prosecutors say Kottmann – whom Bloomberg describes as having an “anti-intellectual property ideology” – is just a member of a collective behind hacks.
In the case of Verkada, the group managed to gain access to live streams of approximately 150,000 surveillance cameras in prisons, schools, police departments and more.
Kottmann is represented by Marcel Bosonnet, who acted as Edward Snowden’s lawyer in Switzerland.