GENEVA (AP) – Swiss authorities on Monday confirmed a police operation at the home of a Swiss software engineer who took credit for helping to hack the online networks of a U.S. security camera company, part of which the activist hacker cited it as an attempt to raise awareness about the dangers of mass surveillance.
The Federal Justice Office said the regional police in central Lucerne, following 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 operation. The Swiss office declined to specify the location or comment further, postponing all questions to “the relevant American authority”
The FBI said in a statement on Friday that it was “aware of the police activity conducted in Switzerland”, but did not comment further.
Kottmann identified himself as a member of a group of “hacktivists” who claim to have been able to see live camera images and spy in hospitals, schools, factories, prisons and corporate offices for much of Monday and Tuesday last week after obtaining access to the systems of the startup Verkada of California. They said the action was aimed at raising awareness of mass surveillance.
Later, Verkada blocked them by disabling all internal administrator accounts that hackers accessed using valid credentials found online. The company alerted law enforcement authorities and their customers.
Kottmann, who uses the pronouns they / they said on the social media site Mastodon last week that the attack was not specifically about the Verkada hack, but was linked to a previous FBI investigation. Kottmann had already called attention for leaking hacked material to expose security flaws, including from American chip maker Intel last year.
It is common for professional cybersecurity researchers to investigate online systems for security breaches, although “hacktivists” often take it a step further by publicly exposing security risks or leaked materials to effect social change.
Kottmann did not immediately return requests for comment.
Verkada, based in San Mateo, California, launched its cloud-based surveillance service as part of the next generation of workplace safety. Its software detects when people are in the camera’s field of view, and a “Person History” feature allows customers to recognize and track individual faces and other attributes, such as clothing color and likely gender. Not all customers use the facial recognition feature.
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O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.