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GENEVA (AP) – Swiss authorities on Monday confirmed a police raid on the home of a Swiss software engineer who took credit for helping penetrate the online networks of a US security camera company, what the activist hacker cited as an outreach effort. awareness of the dangers of mass surveillance.
The Federal Office of Justice said that regional police in central Lucerne, acting on a request for legal assistance from the US authorities, carried out a home search on Friday involving hacker Tillie Kottmann.
The hacker said online that electronic devices were seized during the raid. The Swiss office declined to specify the location or comment further, referring all questions to “the relevant US authority.”
The FBI said in a statement Friday that it was “aware of law enforcement activities in Switzerland” but had no further comment.
Kottmann had identified himself as a member of a group of “hacktivists” who say they were able to see live camera feeds and watch in hospitals, schools, factories, prisons and offices. company for much of Monday and Tuesday last week after gaining access to the systems of California start-up Verkada. They said the action was aimed at raising awareness of mass surveillance.
Verkada then locked them down by disabling any internal administrator accounts that the hackers had accessed using valid credentials found online. The company alerted the police and its customers.
Kottmann, who uses their pronouns, told the Mastodon social media site last week that the raid was not specifically about the Verkada hack, but was linked to an earlier FBI investigation. Kottmann has already drawn attention for leaking pirated material to expose security holes, including from US chipmaker Intel last year.
It is common for professional cybersecurity researchers to probe online systems for security holes, although “hacktivists” often go further by publicly exposing security risks or hardware leaks to effect social change. .
Kottmann did not immediately return requests for comment.
Verkada, based in San Mateo, Calif., Showcased their cloud-based monitoring service as part of the next generation of workplace security. Its software detects people in camera view and a “People History” feature allows customers to recognize and track individual faces and other attributes, such as clothing color and probable gender. Not all customers use the facial recognition feature.
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O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
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