Autistic Lapsus$ Hacker Who Leaked GTA 6 Clips Sentenced to Life in a Hospital

[btarunr]

18-year old Arion Kurtaj from Oxford, UK, was a key member of the international hacking gang Lapsus$, which, among several cases of cyber crime against tech giants, has been behind the recent leak of the Grand Theft Auto VI video clips, ahead of the official trailer by Rockstar Games. Over the years, Lapsus$ hit big tech companies, including Rockstar Games, NVIDIA, and Uber, with their exploits assessed to have caused these companies about $10 million in losses. In an interesting twist to the case, the Kurtaj was deemed by doctors unfit to stand trial as he is severely autistic, and so the jury in the case was asked to determine only whether or not he committed the acts of cyber crime, and not if he did so with criminal intent.

The judge hearing the case said Kurtaj's skills and desire to commit cyber crime meant he remained a high risk to the public. While on bail from his previous arrest for hacking NVIDIA and UK telecommunication giants EE and BT, and in police protection in a hotel, Kurtaj pulled off his most daring hack of breaching Rockstar Games, using only an Amazon Firestick, his hotel's TV, and a mobile phone. He stole 90 clips of unreleased footage from gameplay of Grand Theft Auto VI. He also broke into Rockstar's internal Slack channel, threatening to leak the game's source code if the studio didn't contact him within 24 hours. He was immediately re-arrested and in lock-up until his trial. Rockstar Games told the court that it cost the company $5 million to recover from the hack, in staff billable hours.



Another Lapsus$ hacker from the UK, who is 17 and hence cannot be named, was found guilty in the same trial and sentence to an 18-month long youth rehabilitation order, including intense supervision and a ban from using VPNs. This individual worked with Kurtaj and other Lapsus$ members to hack NVIDIA, EE, and BT, to steal data and demanding ransoms of $4 million in crypto currency, which were not paid. Kurtaj is now sentenced to life in hospital, a politically correct term used to mean that he is institutionalized, until Doctors deem him no longer a danger.

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[The Quim Reaper]

Obviously MI5 & MI6 will be making regular visits to him when they have a particularly difficult network to hack, overseas...

 

[xtreemchaos]

is he really a danger ?, hes done rockstar a fav showing them how easy thay are to hack. life in a mental hostpital is too much for being autistic and sad.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

This reminds of the meme "I once saw john wick kill someone with a f(*&ing PENCIL" except "I once saw him hack Nvidia with a f^&ing FIRESTICK...A. F^&(ING FIRESTICK!!!!1!"

 

[nguyen]

the man is definitely someone you don't want to mess with, unless you want your "Homework" folder getting leaked

 

[Chomiq]

Typo in the title...

 

[katzi]

As a fellow Autistic person, I'm disgusted they've committed him as punishment.

They'll be torturing him with ABT and other pseudo-psychological "treatments".

If they wanted to stop the "behaviour", they should give him a goddamn JOB - paying him Every Dollar his skills are worth doing what he's clearly Extremely good at.
But no, can't possibly help the neurodivergent folk thrive.

is he really a danger ?, hes done rockstar a fav showing them how easy thay are to hack. life in a mental hostpital is too much for being autistic and sad.

a "Mental hospital" for ASD folk, is more often a torture facility than help. ESPECIALLY in the UK.

 

[NC37]

Kids like this are exactly why I've said for years that remote driverless cars and such are terrible ideas. If there is a network and a reason to do it, they can and will. No amount of security will matter. Just give them enough time and they'll figure something out. A Firestick and a phone...heh, good show. Honestly, I doubt they really lost 5 mil. If anything they'll make that back in sales because people won't wait for it to release and they'll go buy the current one and mod it up to get their fix. That or it will only increase preorders. Leaks can be powerful tools if used correctly.

 

[xtreemchaos]

a "Mental hospital" for ASD folk, is more often a torture facility than help. ESPECIALLY in the UK.

yes bud i went through it as a kid 18 months under the cosh funny thing is every shrink i saw was more nutty than me and most was only interested with what i did with my junk.

 

[Chaitanya]

As a fellow Autistic person, I'm disgusted they've committed him as punishment.

They'll be torturing him with ABT and other pseudo-psychological "treatments".

If they wanted to stop the "behaviour", they should give him a goddamn JOB - paying him Every Dollar his skills are worth doing what he's clearly Extremely good at.
But no, can't possibly help the neurodivergent folk thrive.


a "Mental hospital" for ASD folk, is more often a torture facility than help. ESPECIALLY in the UK.

Unfortunately most psychiatric facilities(both private and government owned) across the globe are a torture centers and it seems like UK hasnt evolved from its colonial days when it comes to penalties and its just sad that kid has been sentenced to life of suffering.

 

[katzi]

Unfortunately most psychiatric facilities(both private and government owned) across the globe are a torture centers and it seems like UK hasnt evolved from its colonial days when it comes to penalties and its just sad that kid has been sentenced to life of suffering.

the YUCK has along history of torturing neurodivergent people.

It's disgusting.

 

[Vayra86]

the YUCK has along history of torturing neurodivergent people.

It's disgusting.

Anything outside the 'norm' has a similar history. Its a shame really, because it stifles human evolution. We care about a lot of the wrong things, look what we spend in healthcare on old people. Disgusting indeed. Mental issues are much harder to treat because they are much harder to measure... all while we cultivate a society that is capable of driving you mad.

 

[human_error]

As a fellow Autistic person, I'm disgusted they've committed him as punishment.

If they wanted to stop the "behaviour", they should give him a goddamn JOB - paying him Every Dollar his skills are worth doing what he's clearly Extremely good at.
But no, can't possibly help the neurodivergent folk thrive.

He has stated he will never stop. They could give him a job but they can't trust that he won't continue hacking and attacking companies when he's not watched.

If he was an arsonist who would never stop burning businesses down you'd expect them to be locked up until they no longer pose a threat. Just because the attacks and damage to businesses is online doesn't make it any less dangerous/damaging to businesses and people's livelihoods. He's lucky they don't send him to normal prison where the general population would go for him as an outlier.

 

[xtreemchaos]

buddy id take any prison over a mental hostpital any day.

 

[freeagent]

Disgusting.

 

[mechtech]

He should have submitted those $$ bug bounty reports to google, ms, etc. Probably a better way to earn income.

 

[ZoneDymo]

10 million dollar losses between Nvidia, Rockstar and Uber........are you freaking kidding me? a drop on the surface of the sun would have made more impact....and this guy essentially gets life?
Cyberpunk is coming sooner rather then later, we are doomed.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah that's whack
But I'm sure UK gov has plans for this genius so I doubt he'll end up like many other poor souls that aren't as functioning as he.

They might teach him how not to be caught

 

[evernessince]

is he really a danger ?, hes done rockstar a fav showing them how easy thay are to hack. life in a mental hostpital is too much for being autistic and sad.

Well he did try to blackmail them with the source code which indicates a bad mentality but yeah, the punishment doesn't fit the crime here. At least from the information we have.

 

[gffermari]

This reminds of the meme "I once saw john wick kill someone with a f(*&ing PENCIL" except "I once saw him hack Nvidia with a f^&ing FIRESTICK...A. F^&(ING FIRESTICK!!!!1!"

+1000

The life sentence is ridiculous though.
Even if he stole 5B$, a 20 year one would be ok.
But 10M damage? Really?!!!
That's a logistical error for them!!

 

[evernessince]

+1000

The life sentence is ridiculous though.
Even if he stole 5B$, a 20 year one would be ok.
But 10M damage? Really?!!!
That's a logistical error for them!!

$10 million in losses, not damages. Important distinction because I assume that's the amount they had to pay for a security audit and their lawyers. A security audit which they clearly needed anyways. Far too many companies skimp on ongoing security of their data only to end up having to pay more when there is a critical security event.

 

[mechtech]

the man is definitely someone you don't want to mess with, unless you want your "Homework" folder getting leaked

I’m old. Mine is pencil and paper lol

 

[RayneYoruka]

is he really a danger ?, hes done rockstar a fav showing them how easy thay are to hack. life in a mental hostpital is too much for being autistic and sad.

I can definitely say that mental hospital life is pretty awful....

 

[Pooch]

you spelled autistic wrong in the headline

 

[PCL]

While on bail from his previous arrest for hacking NVIDIA and UK telecommunication giants EE and BT, and in police protection in a hotel, Kurtaj pulled off his most daring hack of breaching Rockstar Games, using only an Amazon Firestick, his hotel's TV, and a mobile phone.

I'd see this in a movie and yell at the TV calling it unrealistic.