Biography
Aubrey Cottle, known online as Kirtaner, is a Canadian internet figure from Oshawa, Ontario, and a self-described early member of the hacktivist collective Anonymous. He is widely known for helping revive Anonymous activity against QAnon, and reporting has linked him to operations targeting QAnon infrastructure, the Freedom Convoy fundraising site GiveSendGo, and the hosting provider Epik. In March 2025 he was charged in connection with the 2021 breach of the Texas Republican Party. Prosecutors allege he gained access through a compromise of the GOP hosting provider Epik, defaced the party website, and downloaded a backup web server containing personal information that was later released publicly as a roughly 180-gigabyte BitTorrent file. He was arrested in Oshawa on March 26, 2025 by the Ontario Provincial Police working with the FBI, pursuant to a United States warrant. On March 28, 2025 the US Department of Justice unsealed charges of unlawfully transferring, possessing or using a means of identification, connected to aggravated identity theft and wire fraud, carrying up to five years in prison. In Canada he faces charges of mischief to computer data, unauthorized use of a computer, and possession of a device to obtain unauthorized use of a computer. He was granted bail in early April 2025 under internet and travel restrictions, then jailed at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario from late October 2025 over an alleged breach of those bail conditions. As of June 2026, extradition proceedings to the United States remain pending and the allegations are unproven; he has not been convicted.
