The hack cost Rockstar Games $5 million.

The 18-year-old Lapsus$ hacker who played a critical role in leaking Grand Theft Auto VI footage has been sentenced to life inside a hospital prison, according to a report from the BBC. A British judge ruled on Thursday that Arion Kurtaj is a high risk to the public because he still wants to commit cybercrimes.

In August, a London jury found that Kurtaj carried out cyberattacks against GTA VI developer Rockstar Games and other companies, including Uber and Nvidia. However, since Kurtaj has autism and was deemed unfit to stand trial, the jury was asked to determine whether he committed the acts in question, not whether he did so with criminal intent.

  • Cosmoooooooo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3314·
    1 year ago

    Life? That’s bonkers. For leaking GTA crap? Egad.

    Guess a billion dollar company bought the legal system…

    Rockstar: ‘Lock him up and throw away the key. Also, play our game and go shoot some civilians, cops, and feds in a hacker terrorist bank heist online with friends!’

    • deweydecibel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      152·
      1 year ago

      The use of “for life” here is extremely misleading and rage baiting. People around here shit on the media all the time, but fall for this clickbait hook line and sinker.

      He’s not been imprisoned “for life”. He’s been put in a hospital until deemed fit for release or to stand trial. Because he’s literally destroying shit and hurting people/himself.

      During Thursday’s hearing, the court heard Kurtaj “had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage,” the BBC reports. A mental health assessment also found that Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.”

      And yeah, we all like cybercrime around here when the kid does it to Rockstar, but he can just as easily do more damaging things to regular people, and that’s a serious concern. If he can’t control himself long enough to get through a trial, then there’s no reason to assume he won’t do more shit.

    • ExcursionInversion@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Hacking spree one Jurors heard that the unnamed teenager started hacking with Kurtaj in July 2021 having met online. Kurtaj aided by Lapsus$ associates, hacked the servers and data files of telecoms company BT and EE, the mobile operator, before demanding a $4m (£3.1m) ransom on 1 August 2021.

      Hacking spree two That did not deter the duo who continued hacking with Lapsus$ and successfully breached Nvidia, a Silicon Valley tech giant that makes chips for artificial intelligence chatbots, in February 2022. They stole and leaked sensitive and valuable data and demanded a ransom payment to stop them releasing more.

      Hacking spree three Prosecutors say he was “caught red handed” when City of London Police searched his hotel room. In a “flagrant disregard for his bail conditions”, jurors were told that police found an Amazon Fire Stick in his hotel TV allowing him to connect to cloud computing services with a newly purchased smart phone, keyboard and mouse.