Aubrey Cottle

Early Life and Online Origins

Born on April 6, 1987, Aubrey Cottle grew up to become an active participant in early internet forum culture. In the mid-2000s he frequented 4chan and Something Awful, communities where users began collectively adopting the label "Anonymous" — derived from 4chan's default username for unregistered posters. During this period, the loosely organized group engaged in trolling, raiding online games and chat rooms, and black-hat hacking operations targeting figures such as Hal Turner and the Church of Scientology.

As 4chan moved to curtail raiding activity on its platform, Cottle and others migrated to his own website, 420chan, an imageboard he had founded with a focus on drug culture, LGBT discussion, and raiding. 420chan and its sister site Taima.tv became known for communities centered on recreational drug use, LGBT and transgender topics, and pro wrestling, the latter organized around a board known as "/wooo/" which spawned the /wooo/tube station on Taima.tv.

Involvement with Anonymous

Cottle claims to have been an early and active member of Anonymous during the group's formative years in the late 2000s. His participation included the 2008 Project Chanology campaign against the Church of Scientology. After being photographed by Scientologists during a Project Chanology rally, Cottle stated he grew concerned for his family's safety. He subsequently attempted, without success, to shut Anonymous down, and then tried to generate negative press coverage to erode the group's public support.

In a 2021 interview with Vice News, Cottle claimed responsibility for Anonymous's 2008 attack on the Epilepsy Foundation's website, in which members flooded the forum with flashing animations intended to trigger seizures in users with photosensitive or pattern-sensitive epilepsy. He later expressed remorse for the attack. Cottle has acknowledged that he retired from Anonymous for a number of years following this period, during which time he worked as a software engineering contractor.

2020 Re-emergence and Anti-QAnon Work

After Anonymous largely faded from public view by 2018, the group re-emerged in 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd protests. Reuters identified Cottle as one of those responsible for the group's renewed presence on Twitter. Anonymous carried out the June 2020 BlueLeaks breach, publicly releasing a large volume of hacked U.S. law enforcement data.

In August 2020, Cottle identified himself as a founder of Anonymous in an article by Dale Beran published in The Atlantic. He subsequently became a prominent figure in efforts to counter the QAnon conspiracy movement. In October 2020, he was among researchers who exposed connections between QAnon figure Jim Watkins and domain names suggesting links to child pornography. In November 2020, he exploited security flaws in the social networking platform Parler to spoof posts appearing to come from a verified account belonging to Ron Watkins, in which Watkins appeared to identify his father Jim Watkins as "Q," the anonymous poster central to QAnon. Around the same time, Cottle accessed Parler's email newsletter database by exploiting a vulnerability in a third-party vendor.

In January 2021, Cottle leaked email logs from Is It Wet Yet, a company belonging to Jim Watkins that serves as the parent company of 8chan, enabling researchers to examine Watkins's connections to other QAnon-linked figures. In August 2021, Cottle and open source intelligence analyst Libby Shaw exposed the developer behind QAlerts, an app used by QAnon adherents to read posts attributed to "Q."

In February 2022, Cottle claimed responsibility for a hack on the Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo, which had been hosting a fundraiser for the Canada convoy protest. The breach released donor names, personal information, and donation amounts. Following his public claim of responsibility, it was reported that he had received murder threats.

Sakura Samurai

In 2020, Cottle joined Sakura Samurai, a white hat hacking group. He participated in the January 2021 responsible disclosure of a breach affecting the United Nations, which had exposed more than 100,000 private employee records. In August 2021, he and other Sakura Samurai members helped validate a vulnerability on Ford's website that exposed company records and enabled potential malicious account takeovers. Cottle departed Sakura Samurai later that month, citing a desire to avoid complications arising from his other activities.

Legal Proceedings

In March 2025, Cottle was arrested in connection with a 2021 intrusion into the Republican Party of Texas's website. According to the indictment, he had taken credit for the hack on social media. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.