Arion Kurtaj, the 18-year-old hacker from the international gang Lapsus$, received an indefinite hospital order after playing a critical role in leaking Grand Theft Auto VI footage in September. Notoriously known as a central member of the international hacker group, Arion Kurtaj breached Rockstar’s servers in a small hotel room while still under police custody, using only Amazon Fire Stick and a newly purchased smartphone, keyboard and mouse.
In his endeavours, Arian Kurtaj leaked 90 videos of GTA VI gameplay footage and broke into the company’s internal Slack messaging system to declare: “If Rockstar does not contact me on Telegram within 24 hours, I will start releasing the source code.”
Unfortunately for the teenager, police immediately apprehended him and detained him for a jurisdiction in which he will now serve a lifetime in hospital prison.
Arion Kurtaj’s Will Serve An Indefinite Hospital Order Due to Acute Autism
Although Arion Kurtaj’s attorney’s best efforts to argue against his client base by bringing up the issue have not affected Rockstar’s GTA VI success, the court deemed his actions guilty as her honour Judge Lees highlighted his multiple other hacks with Lapsus$ to attack individuals and businesses, causing real victims and damage.
Furthermore, reports had suggested Kurtaj “had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage.” In addition, a mental health assessment suggested the hacker “is highly motivated and continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime” with no signs of remorse. Therefore, the jury decided he remained too high a risk to the public and sentenced Arion Kurtaj to an indefinite hospitalisation.
Additionally, a second Lapsus$ member was found guilty in the same trial, but as he is still of age, the court and media have refrained from publishing his name. Nevertheless, the 17-year-old working with Kurtaj and other Lapsus$ members to infiltrate NVIDIA and phone company BT/EE, stealing data and demanding a $4 million ransom will now serve an 18-month community sentence called a Youth Rehabilitation Order under intense supervision and a ban from using virtual private networks.
Arion Kurtaj’s History with Hacking and Leaking
As mentioned earlier, this incident with Rockstar was not Arion Kurtaj’s first rodeo in hacking. Ironically, when the incident with Rockstar occurred, he was on bail and under police protection due to his group’s successful hack against NVIDIA and BT/EE.
For context, Arion Kurtaj and Lapsus$ claimed responsibility for the attack on NVIDIA in March and demanded that NVIDIA make its drivers open-source if it doesn’t want more data leaked. For example, the group successfully stole approximately 1 TB of NVIDIA’s information, including details of all the latest GPUs by the company. In addition, they leaked employee credentials and proprietary information onto the internet.
However, the leading chip manufacturers did not stay put and yielded to the hackers’ demands as they played them at their own game by hacking into Lapsus$ private machine. While it is unsure who won the battle between the two, victims of Lapsus$ attacks would definitely feel pleased about the sentences of two of its members now.
Also Read: Sam Bankman-Fried Found Guilty on All 7 Counts Related to Fraud and Money Laundering
Amanda Horsburgh Highlights the Case as an Example of Online Danger
Besides the justice to Rockstar, NVIDIA and many other victims, DCS Amanda Horsburgh, from the City of London police, stated this case would serve as an example of online danger to young children and teenagers.
“This case serves as an example of the dangers that young people can be drawn towards whilst online and the serious consequences it can have for someone’s broader future. Many young people wish to explore how technology works and what vulnerabilities exist.”
“This can include learning to code, interacting with like-minded individuals online and experimenting with tools. Unfortunately, the digital world can also be tempting to young people for the wrong reasons.”
Also Read: Tech Coalition Announces Lantern: The 1st Child Safety Cross-Platform Signal Sharing Program
Online Hacking Is a Real Concern Heading to 2024
Despite Arion Kurtaj getting what he deserved, Rockstar Games reported that the hack cost them $5 million and their staff thousands of hours to recover from the hack itself. It is a detrimental blow to the company, which earned itself a reputation for being one of the most secretive companies.
For example, they rarely give interviews, don’t appear at industry trade shows or events except when they release a remaster, and go months without talking about their next game, let alone showing it off. The massive viewership in their GTA VI trailer, racking over 155 million views, came out of left field and will only be available in 2025.
Yet, despite this, they and another famous company, Insomniac Games, the developers of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, also faced hacks and leaks of their upcoming unreleased games. It is a worrying trend as we head into 2024, and for more information regarding the latest news, follow our Facebook and Instagram social pages.
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