Canadian Hacker Charged with Stealing Texas Republican Party Data

A prominent Canadian hacker associated with the Anonymous group has been arrested on charges of hacking into the Texas Republican Party’s servers and publicly sharing stolen personal information.

Aubrey Cottle, 37, known in hacking circles as “Kirtaner,” was arrested in Canada last Wednesday. In the United States, he is accused of unauthorized access to servers of hosting company Epik, which hosts the websites of the Texas Republican Party and the anti-abortion movement Texas Right to Life.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Cottle accessed backups of the servers and stole users’ personal information, which he later posted online. In subsequent messages on Discord and TikTok, he himself admitted responsibility for the attack.

• During a search of his Ontario home, law enforcement officers found more than 20 terabytes of stolen data. If convicted, Cottle could face up to five years in prison. Prosecutors also cited evidence that he had repeatedly attacked conservative platforms, including GiveSendGo and Freedom Convoy 2022.
• Aubrey Cottle is one of the most famous activist hackers of the last decade, a member of Anonymous, a popular figure in the media, and a participant in documentaries. In 2021, he was linked to a large-scale attack on Epik, after which the website of the Republican Party of Texas was changed and a portal with a mass of stolen data appeared. These actions were a response to the state’s strict abortion laws. In 2022, Cottle even appeared at an Epik online conference, where he avoided directly admitting guilt, although the company’s CEO directly hinted at his involvement.

This case once again demonstrates that hacktivism is not only alive and well, but also actively influencing the political infrastructure. Regardless of political affiliation, attacks on party websites and leaks of personal data are a serious security challenge in the digital age. In Cottle’s case, the issue is not only about guilt, but also about the meaning of the boundaries between digital protest and criminal offense.