TILL KOTTMANN, a/k/a “deletescape” heard you were arrested and your indictment was unsealed

Hacktivist can and sometimes do good - the problem is “greed is good” whereby a hacktivist loses their moral compass and seek to unjustly enrich themselves by extorting victims or leaking info

TILL KOTTMANN, a/k/a, “deletescape,” quick bio:

His digital footprint is somewhat enlarged —which is expected

• twitter accounts have already been suspended @Deletescape and @antiproprietary -February 2021 @nyancrimew <—account used to disseminate data stolen from victims 6 thru 8 (see indictment)

• Instagram Account is still active @deletescape

• main website (archived) is also still very much active see Press Release(s) archived

• GitHub account is also active (archived)

• YouTube Channel

• Google Play Apps, lawnchair2

• Forum XDA post, mainly announcements and largely looks like he abandoned this platform in July 2020. Also archived

• His notbird(.)site (archived) hasn’t been updated since March 12, 2021 which is the exact same day “authorities in Switzerland executed search warrants related to the criminal activity”

Notably on March 9, 2021 a group of hackers a/k/a APT-69420 Arson Cats - which was first reported by Bloomberg - purportedly hacked into video footage of over 150,000 security cameras. These cameras were in banks, jails, schools, and Tesla -the hackers stated their intent was to expose "the surveillance state." The hackers also took to Twitter to humble brag about #OperationPanopticon
Kottman on the hack of Verkada - he told Bloomberg the intent was:

“[to] exposes just how broadly we're being surveilled, and how little care is put into at least securing the platforms used to do so, pursuing nothing but profit".

Now that you have a somewhat thorough background of Kottman. In life there are few things that bring me pure incandescent joy - for example going to a website of a notorious hack-ivist…

http://git.rip only to see this glorious message;

The fact is the Department of Justice filed a sealed complaint on September 15, 2020 and this remained under seal until March 18, 2021

September 15, 2020 Criminal Complaint

Via ECF ¹as paragraph 2 of the Complaint states;

KOTTMANN, a self-proclaimed “hacktivist,”1 is a member of a group of cybercriminal actors engaged in the hacking of protected computer networks of corporate and governmental entities and in the public dissemination of confidential and proprietary information, including source code and internal user data.

As the September 2020 Complaint states, as of September 2020 KOTTMAN used Telegram to disseminate the purloined data. Moreover the Government disclosed that KOTTMAN hacks resulted in:

“posted data of more than 80 companies and government agencies, which were available publicly for review and download. The published downloadable databases include numerous prominent U.S. companies as well as foreign entities located in Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan, India, China, Ukraine, and Russia, among other countries…owners of the published data (victims) are identified by name and often by corporate logo.

Again not to belabor the point but this criminal complaint was originally filed in mid-September 2020 and remained under seal until March 18, 2021, after he was arrested…

Manner and Means of the Conspiracy;

Until I read the complaint - the theory of cloning databases was a likely scenario- and it turns out this wasn’t a hypothesis—they did clone databases;

In all the September 2020 Criminal Complaint disclosed five (5) victim companies, that Kottman and his co-conspirators unlawfully gained access to their networks and subsequently stole files, source code(s) and other confidential corporate documents -to wit he use his website to publish/leak the purloined data.

March 2021 Indictment

Largely reiterative of the September 2020 complaint -the March 18, 2021 Indictment (ECF) does enlarged time frame. To now include hacking activity as recent as March 2021 (see the Bloomberg article quoted previously)

The Indictment is in short a recitation of previous facts elucidated in the September 2020 Complaint. Notwithstanding the indictment now adds (or in other terms ties the conspiracy to) 18 U.S.C. §1030 - Fraud and related activity in connection with computers

The Indictment further adds to the list of victims (the September 2020 complaint merely listed victims 1 thru 5) whereas the March 2021 indictment now includes victims 6 thru 8 (see pages 7 and 8 of indictment)

Count Two of the Indictment - conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1043 -Fraud by wire, radio, or television -

what you should know is the Government must prove the four prerequisite elements, as detailed below²

(1) that the defendant voluntarily and intentionally devised or participated in a scheme to defraud another out of money; (2) that the defendant did so with the intent to defraud; (3) that it was reasonably foreseeable that interstate wire communications would be used; and (4) that interstate wire communications were in fact used

Counts 3-7 - wire fraud - here the prosecution lays out the “execution” of the ‘scheme and artifact to defraud”

Lest you question the authenticity of the documents I’ve embedded

WDWAnews @WDWAnews

Swiss Hacker indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft -- Allegedly targeted and published source code and proprietary data of corporate and government victims in various countries

justice.govSwiss Hacker indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theftSeattle – A prolific Swiss computer hacker, TILL KOTTMANN, 21, was indicted today by a grand jury in the Western District of Washington for computer intrusion and identity and data theft activities spanning 2019 to the present.

Kotterman Indictment via DOJ-OPA https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/press-release/file/1377536/download³ and lastly I am and have always been agnostic as it relates to hackivist. Meaning not all hackers are bad actors but not all hackivist are do-gooders. With respect to what’s next for Kottman - see March 18, 2021 Order Bench Warrant and yes there’s an “in force” extradition treaty (MLAT) in place with Switzerland⁴

1. September 2020 Kottman Complaint uploaded to my public drive, found here

2. United States Attorney Manual - Criminal Resource Manual 941 - last visited March 20, 2021 https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-941-18-usc-1343-elements-wire-fraud

3. Highlighted and annotated Kottman Indictment via my public drive

4. Treaty Between the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and SWITZERLAND -Pursuant to Public Law 89—497, approved July 8, 1966 (80 Stat. 271; 1 U.S.C. 113) last visited March 20, 2021 https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/97-910-Switzerland-Extradition-Treaty.pdf