Verkada security camera hacker has been charged in the US for hacking into 100+ of the world's biggest companies since 2019 and leaking proprietary data online
U.S. Files Charges Over Data Theft Kelly Sheridan / Dark Reading : Verkada Attacker Charged With Wire Fraud, Conspiracy in US Sarah Coble / infosecurity-magazine.com : US Indicts Software Engineer Michael Kan / PCMag : Feds Indict Hacktivist Behind Verkada Surveillance Camera Breach Dell Cameron / Gizmodo : U.S. Indicts 21-Year-Old Accused of Leaking Stolen Data of Disney, Nintendo, and More Noah Manskar / New York Post : Feds indict Swiss hacker behind massive Verkada security camera breach Cromwell Schubarth / San Francisco Business Journal : Swiss ‘anti-capitalist’ charged in hacks of Verkada and dozens of other companies Jonathan Keane / Silicon Republic : Hacker that claimed to breach cameras at Tesla charged in the US Simon Sharwood / The Register : Swiss security provocateur who leaked Intel secrets indicted by US authorities Tweets: Thomas Brewster / @iblametom : New - Tillie Kottmann, the hacker who'd claimed responsibility for attacks on Verkada and Nissan to name a few, spoke to me before US charges were filed late yesterday. “Caring about literally nothing but profit definitely doesn't result in security.” https://www.forbes.com/... William Turton / @williamturton : The U.S. said that Kottmann operated the website https://git.rip/, which published “files and information of corporate and government entities.” This is what that site looks like now: https://twitter.com/... William Turton / @williamturton : I should pause to note that Kottmann's apartment in Switzerland was searched and their devices were seized last week. According to the warrant, the search “was conducted as part of a U.S criminal case against Kottmann in the Western District of Washington."https://www.bloomberg.com/ ... James Vincent / @jjvincent : The US has charged Tillie Kottmann, the 21-year-old Swiss hacker behind the recent Verkada breach. The charges, though, relate to Kottmann's *prolific* attacks on 100+ other firms. Kottmann says they were motivated by anti-capitalist, anti-IP ideology https://www.theverge.com/... FBI Seattle / @fbiseattle : Swiss Hacker Indicted for Conspiracy, Wire Fraud, and Aggravated Identity Theft: Till Kottmann, a prolific Swiss computer hacker, has been indicted for computer intrusion and identity and data theft activities. https://www.fbi.gov/... Sean Lyngaas / @snlyngaas : A busy night for DOJ announcements: the Swiss national who took credit for the breach of surveillance vendor Verkada and its 150K + live camera feeds has been indicted for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft: https://www.justice.gov/... Joe Tidy / @joetidy : Verkada security camera ‘hacktivist’ Till Kottman has now been raided and subsequently indicted by the US for multiple alleged hacking offences since 2019. What will this case mean for ‘white hack hackers’ and whistle blowers? https://www.justice.gov/... William Turton / @williamturton : NEWS: Tillie Kottmann, who claimed credit for hacking security camera company Verkada, has been indicted in the U.S. https://www.justice.gov/... https://twitter.com/... Andrew Thompson / @anthomsec : Swiss Hacker indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft | USAO-WDWA | Department of Justice https://www.justice.gov/... @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 https://www.justice.gov/... ClearingTheFog / @clearing_fog : Indictment issued for the Swiss hacker who took control over all of the security cameras. That was fast. https://twitter.com/... Kim Zetter / @kimzetter : This feels like an unusually rapid indictment https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The case extends a U.S. enforcement record that has treated large-scale corporate data theft as a criminal matter, including [[a:955960|charges over a decade-long campaign alleged to have taken data from organizations in 11 countries]] and earlier allegations of IP theft from U.S. and European companies. Here, prosecutors connect alleged intrusions since 2019 to publication through git.rip rather than to a single victim.
The DOJ indictment is paired with Swiss authorities' search and seizure of electronic devices, making cross-border evidence collection central to a case involving alleged disclosures from companies including Verkada, Disney, Nintendo, Tesla, Intel, and Nissan.
First-order effects
- Tillie Kottmann faces U.S. allegations of wire fraud, conspiracy, and aggravated identity theft tied to hacks and publication of proprietary material from more than 100 companies.
- Swiss authorities' seizure of electronic devices gives the U.S. case a concrete cross-border investigative step beyond the indictment.
Second-order effects
- Companies whose material was allegedly published through git.rip are now connected to one DOJ case, concentrating the alleged breaches and disclosures under a single prosecution.
- The U.S.-Swiss investigative coordination reinforces the DOJ's ability to pursue alleged corporate-data theft when the accused and potential evidence are outside the United States.
Third-order effects
- Alongside prior U.S. cases involving alleged theft of corporate and confidential data, this points to cyber-enforcement increasingly combining victim-company incidents into broad criminal cases rather than treating them as isolated breaches.
- If that pattern persists, cross-border evidence cooperation will become a more important part of how prosecutors pursue alleged data-theft and disclosure campaigns.
The trend: U.S. cyber enforcement is increasingly framing multi-victim corporate data theft and public disclosure as cross-border criminal cases requiring coordinated evidence gathering.