Hacker Aubrey Cottle at his Oshawa, Ont., home in April, 2025. Mr. Cottle says he has been in Ontario jail since October for allegedly breaching bail conditions.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Canadian hacker Aubrey Cottle, who faces charges in connection with a cyberattack linked to notorious hacktivist group Anonymous on the Texas Republican Party, says he’s in jail for allegedly breaching his bail conditions.
Speaking by phone last week from the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ont., where he’s been since late October, Mr. Cottle said he believes the case against him is politically motivated.
“I look forward to being on the other end of all of this, and I’m also paying very close attention to the Trump administration and how disappointing they are to the rest of the world,” said the 38-year-old resident of Oshawa, Ont.
Canadian hacker feels remorse for role Anonymous members played in rise of Trump
Mr. Cottle, who goes by the online alias Kirtaner, was criminally charged in Canada and the United States last year in connection with the Sept. 11, 2021, hack of the Texas GOP website. A condition of his bail was that he remain under the supervision of his mother at all times, Mr. Cottle said.
In Canada, Mr. Cottle has been charged with mischief to computer data, unauthorized use of a computer and possession of a device to obtain unauthorized use of a computer.
In the U.S., he has been 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. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted on the U.S. charges.
In 2021, hackers who claimed to be affiliated with Anonymous gained access to the Texas GOP website by first infiltrating web-hosting company Epik. They defaced the party’s website, replacing its banner with cartoon characters, a pornographic image and a music video, and then downloaded personal identifying information from the party’s web server and shared it online, according to U.S. court documents.
The hacktivist collective first gained notoriety in 2008 for wearing Guy Fawkes masks to protest against the Church of Scientology.
Mr. Cottle has previously expressed remorse for the role that he believes he and other members of Anonymous played in the rise of the alt-right, and for inadvertently helping Donald Trump become the President of the United States. The collective first came together on an online forum called 4chan, where they engaged in what Mr. Cottle described as “fun and hijinks.”
While it’s impossible to ascertain the extent to which members of Anonymous may have influenced the course of U.S. politics, the collective’s tactics wound up informing a contingent of far-right users on the platform who went on to launch viral disinformation campaigns such as “Pizzagate.”
The 2016 conspiracy theory falsely claimed that the Democrats, including Mr. Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton, were running a child-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizza parlour.
Mr. Cottle’s lawyers declined to comment on his arrest and incarceration.
Previously, Riaz Sayani, a partner at Toronto-based criminal law firm Savards LLP, called the timing of the charges against his client “peculiar,” noting that the allegations were years old.
“Canadian and American authorities investigated at the time. No one laid charges then. Now that President Trump is in office, Canadian authorities have chosen to co-operate with the FBI and Department of Justice to charge Mr. Cottle,” Mr. Sayani said last April, on behalf of Mr. Cottle’s legal team.
Mr. Cottle’s next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 18.