Kurtaj – together with other unknown members of Lapsus$ – was found to have been responsible for stealing commercially sensitive code and video of the latest installment of the Grand Theft Auto series while he was on bail for the previous hacks. — Image by Racool_studio on Freepik
The teen hacker who leaked footage of Rockstar Games Inc’s upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI installment and hacked into technology firm Nvidia Corp was placed in a secure hospital by a British judge.
Arion Kurtaj, 18, and a 17-year-old male, who can’t be identified, were convicted of being part of the notorious hacking group Lapsus$. They were found guilty of serious computer misuse, blackmail and fraud against BT Group Plc’s EE network and Nvidia in August after a seven-week criminal trial. Kurtaj was also found to have hacked into Uber Technologies Inc, fintech firm Revolut Ltd, and Rockstar Games.
Judge Patricia Lees ruled Kurtaj should be placed in a secure hospital until a mental health tribunal decides he can leave in the future. Lees found Kurtaj was still fixated with hacking and likely to offend again. Kurtaj was previously found unfit to stand a traditional trial because of his complex autistic-spectrum disorder.
Kurtaj remained “a high risk of serious harm to the public through skill in gaining unfettered access to computers”, Lees said at Guildford Crown Court on Thursday. She said there was also a risk of online hackers enticing him into further crimes.
The 17-year-old accomplice was sentenced to a youth rehabilitation order with an 18 month supervision requirement. His sentence took into account crimes he pleaded guilty to at a separate youth court including stalking and harassment.
Lapsus$ are an international bunch of loosely connected online extortionists. The group has confounded cybersecurity experts since it first appeared on a rampage of high-profile attacks between 2021 and 2022, causing millions of dollars of damages for its targets. They appeared to hack for notoriety, financial gains and laughs.
The two teens hacked into Nvidia and stole as much as one terabyte of data from the tech firm in order to demand a ransom payment. They were also accused of taking part in a wide-scale SIM swap fraud that drained EE customers’ personal bank and cryptocurrency accounts.
Kurtaj – together with other unknown members of Lapsus$ – was found to have been responsible for stealing commercially sensitive code and video of the latest installment of the Grand Theft Auto series while he was on bail for the previous hacks. – Bloomberg
