Security News > 2021 > March > Swiss hacker charged for leaking proprietary source code
Swiss national Till Kottmann, 21, has been charged for conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Kottmann has been at the forefront of numerous leaks involving source code, some of it proprietary or confidential, from dozens of large companies.
In February 2020, KOTTMANN illegally accessed computers belonging to a security device manufacturer located in the Western District of Washington and stole proprietary data.
In the latter instance, KOTTMANN improperly used the credentials of an employee to access illegally the manufacturer's source code databases.
In August, KOTTMANN hacked a Washington state agency and a U.S. government contractor and stole source code related to various web applications.
KOTTMANN published data stolen through these hacks, among many others, on KOTTMANN's website and used social media to promote the hacking activity and the theft and release of proprietary information.