Last week, the self-described creator of Anonymous and admitted federal cooperator Aubrey Cottle, AKA Kirtaner, plead guilty and was sentenced to 18 months after having been charged with mischief to computer data, unauthorized use of a computer, and possession of a device to obtain unauthorized use of a computer and violating the conditions of his bail.
Five years ago, Kirtaner sent me messages through my (now defunct) public Wire account, without enabling disappearing messages. I took the unusual step of saving screenshots of these messages and providing them to my lawyer as documentation that I had no role in the publishing of Epik and that I didn’t work with Kirtaner, contrary to some conspiracy theories.
I’m publishing screenshots of these communications now because his sentencing means that doing so no longer risks lawsuits or harassment alleging that it resulted in a more severe sentence for him. Screenshots of some of Kirtaner’s messages with other people have been uploaded here.
On March 5, 2021, Kirtaner approached me and offered Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) data relating to Epik, which he claimed to have obtained several days prior. DDoSecrets declined to accept the data from Kirtaner, due to repeated warnings about both him and the data. The data was later published independently, after which it was mirrored by DDoSecrets. Later, that month, I sent Kirtaner screenshots of allegations we received involving him, as well as links to articles that I had found, which he dismissed. There were no messages exchanged in April, May or June. The final messages were exchanged in July, when Kirtaner sent me a screenshot of a message from Barrett Brown about audio of Val Broeksmit with the FBI and an attempt to entrap me.
In August 2025 at HOPE, I presented research into western intelligence efforts to weaponize Anonymous, hacktivists, and leaks. Prior to presenting, I sent a list of questions to the American and Canadian lawyers who I understood represented him, because the research included Kirtaner. They did not respond, however they promptly informed Kirtaner, who began sending me Signal messages* with unsolicited promises of “a dataset from a major financial institution in the coming days” and a plea to talk to him personally.
After my presentation (which was live streamed), he sent more messages over Signal, alternating between panic, admissions, and anger. He also sent several screenshots of angry messages from his mother, who called me a “cunt” and wanted to know how I would know about his hard drives (Kirtaner had posted about it publicly, and confirmed it with a picture in messages that were leaked to me), and a screenshot of slur- and transphobia-laden messages, an incorrect statement about the timing and circumstances that led to Lorax being fired from DDoSecrets, and mention of contacting “alphabet agencies” for damage control. On several occasions in these messages, Kirtaner affirmed and attempted to justify his cooperation with federal authorities.
Kirtaner then insisted that the unsolicited messages he had sent me were retroactively off the record – which is not how it works.
March 2021
Note
Kirtaner’s statements about third parties cannot be presumed to be true, in context, or in good faith. Some messages reference “Tillie”, which was the name maia arson crimew publicly used at the time.
August 2025
* My Signal handle is in the signature block of my emails. My assumption is that Kirtaner’s lawyers shared it with him. At no point did I respond to his Signal messages or accept his message request.
