Last year, an 18-year-old hacker was sentenced to life in hospital jail for hacking and leaking dozens of Grand Theft Auto 6 video. According to the BBC, he can only be released in the future if physicians determine he is no longer a danger to others.
Arion Kurtaj was apprehended by London police in Oxford in September 2022, shortly after a hacking spree resulted in the release of tons of in-development footage from Rockstar Games on the internet. He pled not guilty at the time, and later stood trial for cybercrimes related with the hacking group Lapsus$, which included breaches of Uber and Nvidia, as well as the leak of the previously unreleased blockbuster GTA 6.Kurtaj was declared unfit to face trial by medical professionals due to his severe autism. However, even though they were not allowed to prove criminal intent, a jury later decided that he was responsible for the hacks. Kurtaj was able to hack into Rockstar’s networks from his hotel room using only an Amazon Firestick, according to the count. He openly admitted to being a hacker in the company’s Slack channel at the time, and later threatened to reveal the GTA 6 source code unless Rockstar bargained with him via Telegram.During his sentencing, Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible,” according to the BBC, who describes him as “highly motivated.” According to court testimony, he was also violent while being detained in custody for the trial. As a result, he will now spend the remainder of his life in a secure hospital.The GTA 6 breach was part of a recent wave of cyberattacks on major gaming studios and publishers, including CD Projekt Red, Capcom, and, most recently, Insomniac Games. While earlier hackers have revealed personal information about employees, the GTA 6 security breach was limited to gameplay video. Though they revealed aspects of the highly anticipated game while it was still in development, Kurtaj’s lawyers recently argued that the success of GTA 6’s official reveal trailer, which is now the most watched on YouTube ever, demonstrated that his attack was not as detrimental to the game’s sales prospects as some, including Rockstar Games, had initially suggested.
