Western Washington federal prosecutors on Thursday obtained an indictment against the grand jury national team of Switzerland accused by the US of piracy against dozens of companies and government agencies.
According to Bloomberg, Tillie Kottman, a 21-year-old hacker, has taken credit for intrusions on major U.S. companies like Nissan and Intel. non-compliance last week at a California-based security camera company; another trick that according to Kottmann would have stated.
U.S. attorneys allege that Kottmann, in concert with other online users, acquired stolen credentials and accessed secure systems to steal confidential records and codes. The stolen data was hosted on a private website that the FBI confiscated, as well as on Telegram and other services, according to the charge papers.
Prosecutors say notable targets include a security device company, a tactical equipment manufacturer, an automobile manufacturer and a financial investment company.
At one point, a hacker-run website contained 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 and link protected data to the FBI industry alert in October, hackers are warned to take advantage of the default password settings for corporate and government software.
The FBI said it works closely with the Swiss authorities, which has performed a search of Kottmann’s apartment last week in Lucerne, Switzerland, reportedly confiscated electronic devices.
The raid followed reports of a security breach at Verkada, a Silicon Valley security camera company, which Bloomberg reported Kottmann had been credited with. It was reported that the Kottmann house search was part of an independent investigation at the time.
Tillmann’s U.S. investigation, which uses pronouns, is being aided by officials from the Lucerne police and the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, officials said.
“Stealing credentials and data, and posting source code and confidential, proprietary information on the web is not a protected speech, it is theft and fraud,” U.S. attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in a statement. “These actions can increase the vulnerabilities of everyone, from large companies to individual consumers.”
“Wrapping yourself up with a supposedly altruistic motive does not remove the criminal stench of this intrusion, theft and fraud,” he added.
Prosecutors say Kottmann, whom Bloomberg describes as having an “anti-intellectual property ideology,” is just a member of a collective behind the hacks.
In the case of Verkada, the group was able to access live broadcasts of some 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.