Indefinite Prison Sentence for Teen Who Hacked Rockstar Games and Leaked Grand Theft Auto 6 Footage

Rockstar GamesGrand Theft auto 6

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 09:13

A British judge has imposed an indefinite prison sentence on 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj from Oxford, England, for stealing and distributing images from the unreleased game Grand Theft Auto 6. The man, who has an autistic disorder, did the hack while under house arrest for another digital burglary.

Kurtaj managed to hack Rockstar Games, the developer of the extremely popular game, in September last year. He was able to retrieve ninety clips from the server.

He then broke into Rockstar’s communications channel and threatened to share the clips unless he got millions. “If Rockstar doesn’t contact me via Telegram within 24 hours, I will share the footage. I will start releasing the source code.”

Rockstar did not respond to the payment request, so Kurtaj posted the clips on a fan forum. This allowed the images of the long-awaited GTA 6 to be shared with everyone.

Hack with mobile and TV

The teen did all this while out on bail for a hack on technology company Nvidia. He had been placed under house arrest and was confined to a hotel room under police escort.

His laptop was confiscated for investigation, but with the help of a streaming box, the television and his mobile phone he was able to enter Rockstar. It cost the company 4 million euros to repair the damage.

Kurtaj is a member of the hacking group Lapsus$, which is responsible for attacks on Uber, a telephone company and therefore also Rockstar Games. It is estimated that the hacks cost the companies around $10 million. The group of digital bandits mainly consists of teenagers from England and probably Brazil. It is not clear how much Lapsus$ has made from hacks.

Chance of recurrence is high

According to the judge, there is a good chance that Arion Kurtaj will commit another crime. During the case it became apparent that he is “highly motivated” to hack and that he intends to be released as soon as possible. That is why the judge considers TBS without an end date necessary, if necessary for life.

A 17-year-old boy from the group was also convicted. He was given a youth measure, which means he will be placed under supervision for the next year and a half.

Eighteen months after the hack, Rockstar officially presented the first taste of the game, which is scheduled for release in 2025.

That trailer has already been viewed more than 115 million times:

2023-12-22 08:13:21
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