Aubrey “Kirtaner” Cottle, a Canadian man with ties to the Anonymous hacktivist collective, was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the 2021 breach of the Republican Party of Texas.
In a Friday press release, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Cottle, 37, was charged with “unlawfully transferring, possessing, or using a means of identification with the intent to commit, or aid or abet, or in connection with, unlawful activity under state or federal law.”
“Cottle gained unauthorized access to a third-party hosting company’s computer system to deface and download a backup of Texas Republican Party’s web server, which contained personal identifying information,” the DOJ said. “The information was distributed and made available for download online.”
In September 2021, hackers operating under the banner of Anonymous defaced the Texas GOP website after the state put into effect a controversial and restrictive abortion law. The hack was made possible after the website’s host and domain registrar, Epik, was breached earlier that same month, in a hack also credited to Anonymous as well.
Cottle, according to unsealed court documents, claimed responsibility for the hack “on multiple social media platform.” The documents also include screenshots of chats from Discord where Cottle is alleged to have taken credit.
“i also did this to the texas GOP on 9/11,” Cottle allegedly wrote. “to the fbi agents reading my discord logs: eat my ass i helped your sedition charges least you could do is pay for my therapy.”
Aside from the hack in Texas, Cottle, as outlined in the charging documents, claimed to be behind the breaches against right-wing social media platforms Parler, Gab, Truth Social, and the crowdfunding service GiveSendGo.
The court records further note that more than 20 terabytes of data were obtained from Cottle’s residence following the execution of a search warrant.
Court records show the Federal Bureau of Investigation worked with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Canada, to execute a search warrant at Cottle’s residence, where they seized approximately 20 terabytes of data. The DOJ says the data included the information stolen from the Texas GOP.
If convicted, Cottle faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
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