The Boy Who Hacked GTA 6!
A 17-year-old boy from Oxfordshire, England, has been arrested in connection with recent high-profile hacks against Uber and Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar.
The unnamed teenager is being held on charges that include conspiring to attack at least two computer systems, The Desk by Matthew Keys reports.
The young man was caught at his mother's house, where he lived.
He was arrested by the UK's National Cyber Crime Squad in collaboration with FBI colleagues in the US.
Although The Desk shared a pixelated photo of the boy fishing, his name was not disclosed due to his age. London police said the man remained in custody while the investigation continued.
Arion Kurtaj, an 18-year-old hacker affiliated with the international hacker gang Lapsus$, was given an indefinite hospital sentence for his role in the leak of Grand Theft Auto 6 files. Emphasizing the hacker's cyber security skills and his desire to participate in cyber crimes, the judge made an evaluation, arguing that Kurtaj would hack the company again if he came out and that he was a high risk for the public.
The psychiatrist involved in the case reported that Kurtaj "continues to express his intention to return to cybercrime as soon as possible and remains highly motivated to do so."
The prosecution stated that he continued the hacking while out on bail after being sentenced for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE, and while under police protection at the Travelodge hotel. Although his laptop was confiscated, Kurtaj managed to infiltrate Rockstar, the producer of GTA, using Amazon Firestick, hotel television and mobile phone.
Kurtaj managed to steal 90 clips of the unreleased and highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 and entered the company's internal Slack messaging system, saying, "If Rockstar does not contact me on Telegram within 24 hours, I will start publishing the source code."
He later posted the clips and source code on a forum under the username TeaPotUberHacker. After this, he was arrested again and remained in custody until his trial.
The trailer of GTA 6 was released at the beginning of December and reached more than 128 million views on YouTube in just 4 days.
During the hearings, Kurtaj's defense team cited the success of the game trailer and argued that Kurtaj's hack did not cause serious harm to the game developer. However, the judge stated that the individuals and companies he attacked with Lapsus$ were truly harmed and victimized.
Rockstar Games claimed that the hack cost thousands of staff hours and $5 million to recover.
Another Lapsus$ member, aged 17 and who cannot be named due to his age, was also found guilty at the same six-week trial at Southwark Crown Court. He worked with Kurtaj and other Lapsus$ members to hack and steal data from tech giant Nvidia and phone company BT/EE, demanding a ransom of four million dollars.
