Aubrey Cottle

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Aubrey Cottle
Aubrey Cottle (Kirtaner).png
Born (1987-04-06) April 6, 1987 (age 37)
NationalityCanadian
Other namesKirtaner, Kirt
Occupation(s)Website Forum Administrator, Member of Hacking Group(s)
Years active2008–2011, 2020–present
Known forInformant
Early member of Anonymous
Website phisher.io OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Aubrey Cottle (born April 6, 1987), [1] also known as Kirtaner or Kirt, is a Canadian website forum administrator who claims to be an FBI informant and early member of the hacktivist group Anonymous. [2] Cottle was involved with Anonymous during the late 2000s and in its resurgence beginning in 2020, in which the group attempted to combat the far-right conspiracy movement QAnon. [3]

Contents

Claims

Early years

Cottle claims to have been an active user of 4chan and Something Awful in the mid-2000s, where he and others began collectively referring to themselves as "Anonymous", due to the 4chan moniker of the same name. During this time Anonymous began trolling and "raiding" other websites, online games and chat rooms, as well as black-hat hacking: targeting Hal Turner, The Church of Scientology and others. [4] 4chan ultimately curtailed raiding from their platform, resulting in Cottle and others migrating to Cottle's website 420chan, an imageboard with a focus on drug culture, LGBT discussion, and raiding. [1]

According to Cottle, upon being photographed by Scientologists during the 2008 Project Chanology rally, he began fearing for his family's safety. According to Cottle, he tried unsuccessfully to "shut down" Anonymous after this incident, and so attempted to generate bad press for the group so that they would lose public support. [4] During a 2021 interview with Vice News, he claimed responsibility for the group's 2008 attack on the Epilepsy Foundation's website, [4] where Anonymous members flooded the forum with flashing animations to trigger seizures in those with photosensitive or pattern-sensitive epilepsy. [5] Cottle later expressed remorse for the attack. [4]

Cottle said in a 2021 interview that he retired for "a number of years", and was not continuously involved with Anonymous since its creation. [4] During this period Cottle turned to software engineering contract work. [3]

2020 re-emergence

Beginning with a series of arrests in 2009–2011, Anonymous' notoriety began to fade, and by 2018 the group had largely left the public spotlight. [6] [7] However, in 2020 Anonymous re-emerged following the George Floyd protests, performing the June 2020 BlueLeaks breach in which they publicly released a large amount of hacked U.S. law enforcement data. [8] [9] Reuters named Cottle as one of those responsible for the group's presence on Twitter. [10]

In August 2020, Cottle identified himself as a founder of Anonymous in an article by Dale Beran in The Atlantic. [1] Cottle said in a November 2020 Reddit AMA that "right now my only end-goal is bringing the QAnon game to a conclusion". [3] The previous month, he had been one of the anti-QAnon researchers who exposed connections between QAnon figure Jim Watkins and domain names suggesting connections to child pornography. [11]

In November 2020, Cottle was responsible for exploiting security flaws in Parler, a social networking service popular with the right wing, to spoof posts to appear as though they were from a verified account belonging to Ron Watkins. In the posts, Watkins appeared to expose his father, Jim Watkins, as "Q", the anonymous poster at the center of the QAnon conspiracy theory. [12] Around this time, Cottle exposed Parler user data by exploiting a flaw in a third-party vendor, which granted him access to Parler's email newsletter database. [13] In January 2021, Cottle exposed email logs from a company called Is It Wet Yet, which belongs to Jim Watkins [10] [14] and serves as the parent company for 8chan, an imageboard described as the "home" of QAnon. [14] [15] These leaked logs allowed researchers to analyze Watkins's connections with other figures involved with the QAnon conspiracy movement. [14] In August 2021, Cottle and open source intelligence analyst Libby Shaw were among the researchers who exposed the developer behind QAlerts, an app used by QAnon adherents to read posts from the anonymous "Q". [16]

In February 2022, Aubrey Cottle claimed responsibility for a hack on Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo, which was hosting a fundraiser for the Canada convoy protest. The hack released donor's names, personal information, and donation amounts for all the campaigns on the website. After he claimed responsibility, it was revealed he had been threatened with murder. [17] [18]

Sakura Samurai

In 2020, Cottle joined the white hat hacking group Sakura Samurai, and was involved in the January 2021 disclosure of a United Nations breach, which exposed more than 100,000 private employee records. [19] In August 2021, Cottle and other Sakura Samurai members helped to validate a vulnerability with Ford's website, exposing company records and enabling malicious account takeovers. [20] Cottle left Sakura Samurai later that month, [21] saying he wished to avoid "entanglements" pertaining to his other activities. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

2chan may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QAnon</span> American conspiracy theory and political movement

QAnon is a far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters are operating a global child sex trafficking ring which conspired against Donald Trump. QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, an Internet conspiracy theory that appeared one year earlier, but also incorporates elements of many other theories. QAnon has been described as a cult.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4chan</span> Anonymous imageboard website

4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, music, history, anime, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. Registration is not available and users typically post anonymously. As of 2022, 4chan receives more than 22 million unique monthly visitors, of which approximately half are from the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parler</span> American alt-tech social networking service

Parler is a now-closed American alt-tech social networking service associated with conservatives. Launched in August 2018, Parler marketed itself as a free speech-focused and unbiased alternative to mainstream social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Journalists described Parler as an alt-tech alternative to Twitter, with its users including those banned from mainstream social networks or who oppose their moderation policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anonymous (hacker group)</span> Decentralized hacktivist group

Anonymous is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective and movement primarily known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations and the Church of Scientology.

An imageboard is a type of Internet forum that focuses on the posting of images, often alongside text and discussion. The first imageboards were created in Japan as an extension of the textboard concept. These sites later inspired the creation of a number of English-language imageboards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">420chan</span> Anonymous forums where users can discuss drugs and alcohol

420chan was an anonymous imageboard founded on 20 April 2005 by hacker and freelance web developer Aubrey Cottle. According to its founder, its name was a portmanteau of 420, a slang word originating in cannabis culture but now applicable to drug culture more generally, and 4chan, another imageboard website. Discussion on the site was primarily focused around recreational drug use and wrestling, with other boards related to topics including humor and academia.

Anonymous is a decentralized virtual community. They are commonly referred to as an internet-based collective of hacktivists whose goals, like its organization, are decentralized. Anonymous seeks mass awareness and revolution against what the organization perceives as corrupt entities, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Anonymous has had a hacktivist impact. This is a timeline of activities reported to be carried out by the group.

<i>We Are Legion</i> 2012 American film

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists is a 2012 documentary film about the workings and beliefs of the self-described "hacktivist" collective, Anonymous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">8chan</span> Imageboard website

8kun, previously called 8chan, Infinitechan or Infinitychan, is an imageboard website composed of user-created message boards. An owner moderates each board, with minimal interaction from site administration. The site has been linked to white supremacism, neo-Nazism, the alt-right, racism and antisemitism, hate crimes, and multiple mass shootings. The site has been known to host child pornography; as a result, it was filtered out from Google Search in 2015. Several of the site's boards played an active role in the Gamergate harassment campaign, encouraging Gamergate affiliates to frequent 8chan after 4chan banned the topic. 8chan is the home of the discredited QAnon conspiracy theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fredrick Brennan</span> American software developer, founder of 8chan

Fredrick Robert Brennan is an American software developer and type designer who founded the imageboard website 8chan in 2013, before going on to repudiate it in 2019. Following 8chan's surge in popularity in 2014, largely due to many Gamergate proponents migrating to the site from 4chan, Brennan moved to the Philippines to work for Jim Watkins, who provided hosting services to 8chan and later became the site's owner.

/pol/, short for Politically Incorrect, is an anonymous political discussion imageboard on 4chan. As of 2022, it is the most active board on the site. It has had a substantial impact on Internet culture. It has acted as a platform for far-right extremism; the board is notable for its widespread racist, white supremacist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, misogynist, and anti-LGBT content. /pol/ has been linked to various acts of real-world extremist violence. It has been described as one of the "[centers] of 4chan mobilization", a title also ascribed to /b/.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Watkins (businessman)</span> American businessman and the owner of 8chan

James Arthur Watkins is an American businessman, QAnon conspiracy theorist, and the operator of the imageboard website 8chan/8kun and textboard website 5channel. Watkins founded the company N.T. Technology in the 1990s to support a Japanese pornography website he created while he was enlisted in the United States Army. After leaving the Army to focus on the company, Watkins moved to the Philippines. In February 2014, Watkins became the operator of 2channel after he seized it from its creator and original owner, Hiroyuki Nishimura, later renaming it 5channel. He began providing domain and hosting services to 8chan later that year and became the site's official owner and operator by year's end.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DDoS-Guard</span> Russian-owned Internet infrastructure services provider

DDoS-Guard is a Russian Internet infrastructure company which provides DDoS protection and web hosting services. Researchers and journalists have alleged that many of DDoS-Guard's clients are engaged in criminal activity, and investigative reporter Brian Krebs reported in January 2021 that a "vast number" of the websites hosted by DDoS-Guard are "phishing sites and domains tied to cybercrime services or forums online". Some of DDoS-Guard's notable clients have included the Palestinian Islamic militant nationalist movement Hamas, American alt-tech social network Parler, and various groups associated with the Russian state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Watkins</span> American conspiracy theorist and imageboard administrator

Ronald Watkins, also known by his online pseudonym CodeMonkeyZ, is an American conspiracy theorist and site administrator of the imageboard website 8kun. He has played a major role in spreading the discredited far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, and has promulgated conspiracy theories that widespread election fraud led to Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He is the son of Jim Watkins, the owner and operator of 8kun.

<i>Q Into the Storm</i> Television series

Q: Into the Storm is an American documentary television miniseries directed and produced by Cullen Hoback. It explores the QAnon conspiracy theory and the people involved with it. It consisted of six episodes and premiered on HBO on March 21, 2021. The series received mixed reviews, with some critics praising its insight into the conspiracy theory, and others finding it to be overlong and lacking in analysis of the impacts of QAnon. Some reviewers have criticized the series for not following best practices outlined by extremism researchers for reporting on extremism and conspiracy theories.

Nicholas Lim is a technology entrepreneur and software developer based in Vancouver, Washington. Lim and his companies provide services to alt-tech, far-right and neo-Nazi websites, such as The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi message board website, 8chan, the home of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, and Kiwi Farms, a harassment and anti-trans forum. In 2017, Lim founded BitMitigate, a website security company which in 2019 was acquired by Epik, an America based registrar and hosting company company. In 2019 he founded VanwaTech, a webhosting and website security company.

Italygate is a pro-Trump, QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theory that alleges the 2020 United States presidential election was rigged to favor Joe Biden using satellites and military technology to remotely switch votes from Donald Trump to Biden from the U.S. Embassy in Rome. The conspiracy was also rumored to involve the Vatican. Fact-checkers at Reuters and USA Today, who investigated these claims, described them as "false" and "baseless".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sakura Samurai (group)</span> Hacker group

Sakura Samurai was a white hat hacking and security research group that was founded in 2020. The group is responsible for multiple vulnerability disclosures involving governmental groups and various corporations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Epik data breach</span> 2021 cybersecurity incident

The Epik data breach occurred in September and October 2021, targeting the American domain registrar and web hosting company Epik. The breach exposed a wide range of information including personal information of customers, domain history and purchase records, credit card information, internal company emails, and records from the company's WHOIS privacy service. More than 15 million unique email addresses were exposed, belonging to customers and to non-customers whose information had been scraped. The attackers responsible for the breach identified themselves as members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous. The attackers released an initial 180 gigabyte dataset on September 13, 2021, though the data appeared to have been exfiltrated in late February of the same year. A second release, this time containing bootable disk images, was made on September 29. A third release on October 4 reportedly contained more bootable disk images and documents belonging to the Texas Republican Party, a customer of Epik's.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Beran, Dale (August 11, 2020). "The Return of Anonymous". The Atlantic . Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  2. ↑ Harwell, Drew; Allam, Hannah; Merrill, Jeremy B.; Timberg, Craig (September 25, 2021). "Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep their identities secret". The Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Langlois, Shawn (November 2, 2020). "Founder of hacker group Anonymous reveals his ultimate 'end-game'". MarketWatch . Archived from the original on November 2, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Cottle, Aubrey (September 21, 2021). ""I Left Anonymous. Now I'm Back"" (Interview). Vice – via YouTube.
  5. ↑ Poulsen, Kevin (March 28, 2008). "Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients via Computer". Wired . Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  6. ↑ Gilbert, David (November 2, 2016). "Is Anonymous over?". Vice . Vice Media . Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  7. ↑ Griffin, Andrew (August 7, 2018). "Anonymous promises to uncover the truth behind 'QAnon' conspiracy theory". The Independent . Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  8. ↑ Griffin, Andrew (June 1, 2020). "'Anonymous' is back and is supporting the Black Lives Matter protests". The Independent .
  9. ↑ Molloy, David; Tidy, Joe (June 1, 2020). "The return of the Anonymous hacker collective". BBC News . Archived from the original on June 1, 2020.
  10. 1 2 Menn, Joseph (March 25, 2021). "New wave of 'hacktivism' adds twist to cybersecurity woes". Reuters . Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  11. ↑ Vicens, AJ; Breland, Ali (October 29, 2020). "QAnon Is Supposed to Be All About Protecting Kids. Its Primary Enabler Appears to Have Hosted Child Porn Domains". Mother Jones . Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  12. ↑ Harwell, Drew; Lerman, Rachel (November 23, 2020). "Conservatives grumbling about censorship say they're flocking to Parler. They told us so on Twitter". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  13. ↑ Rothschild, Mike (December 11, 2020). "Why 8kun's former admin is at war with right-wing star Dan Bongino". The Daily Dot . Archived from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  14. 1 2 3 Bevensee, Emmi; Aliapoulios, Max (January 7, 2021). "Exposed Email Logs Show 8kun Owner in Contact With QAnon Influencers and Enthusiasts". bellingcat . Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  15. ↑ Rothschild, Mike (December 11, 2020). "Why 8kun's former admin is at war with right-wing star Dan Bongino". The Daily Dot . Archived from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  16. ↑ Goforth, Claire (September 16, 2021). "How an Oath Keeper brought QAnon to the masses". The Daily Dot . Archived from the original on September 16, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  17. ↑ "GiveSendGo Hacker Faces Death Threats for Leaking 'Freedom Convoy' Donor Info". www.vice.com. February 17, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  18. ↑ Hopper, Tristin (February 17, 2022). "FIRST READING: The ugly witch hunt for Freedom Convoy donors". National Post. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  19. ↑ Sharma, Ax (January 11, 2021). "United Nations data breach exposed over 100k UNEP staff records". BleepingComputer . Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  20. ↑ Howard, Phoebe Wall (August 17, 2021). "Friendly hackers save Ford from potential leak of employee, customer data". Detroit Free Press . Archived from the original on August 17, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  21. ↑ Aubrey Cottle [@ThatNotoriousK] (August 23, 2021). "I'm going to take a moment to let everyone know, I am as of today, taking a multi-month sabbatical from Sakura Samurai. I'm not gone forever... I'd started work with the gang, before other, more urgent matters that brought me out here had been resolved to my liking" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. ↑ Aubrey Cottle [@ThatNotoriousK] (August 23, 2021). "I'm stepping away so there will be no entanglements or potential issues as it pertains to my other... work. Duty calls. I have business I need to finish. I'll be home sooner or later. ;)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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