A court has heard how a British teenager hacked the trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 using a hotel TV and an Amazon Fire Stick.
As reported by the Independent, Arion Kurtaj was in police protection at the time, with his laptop confiscated, but he was still able to breach the systems of Rockstar Games and went on to acquire 90 unreleased clips of GTA6.
Kurtaj, 18, was said to be a “key player” in the online gang Lapsus$, but on Thursday (21 Dec) he was sentenced to indefinite detention for his role in hacking Rockstar and blackmailing the company after he uploaded the clips to a gaming message board, as well as hacking aimed at Uber and Revolut. He previously
His autism condition was stated but psychiatrists advised that Mr Kutaj was not fit to stand trial so the jury was asked not to deliver a verdict, but to find if he had committed the acts.
Judge Patricia Lees at London’s Southwark Crown Court stated Kurtaj’s ability and willingness to commit cybercrime meant he posed a high risk to the public
Dangers of online crime
Kurtaj has previous charges against him, including attacks on BT and EE in which he demanded a $4 million sum to return the assets he had obtained. He also hacked prestigious chipmaker Nvidia, releasing stolen data online with a threat to release more.
In August, the 18-year-old was found by a jury to have committed 12 offenses, two charges of fraud and a further six charges under the Computer Misuse Act. A younger accomplice, 17, also described as an important actor within Lapsus$ was returned with counts of fraud, blackmail and again, the Computer Misue Act, relating to Invidia.
Amanda Horsburgh, a Detective Chief Superintendent from City of London Police, commented the case “serves as an example of the dangers that young people can be drawn towards whilst online”.
In response to the serious hack and intrusion on Rockstar Games, the company released the trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 ahead of schedule, on YouTube, which became the fastest in its history to surpass 100 million hits.
