The 18-year old GTA 6 Hacker has just been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.
(PLGNN) - Arion Kurtaj is an autistic 18-year old from Oxford, England, and was responsible for the largest hack in gaming history. In September of 2022, a user by the name of Teapotuberhacker uploaded 90 videos to the internet forum GTAForums containing around 50 minutes of footage showing the heavily anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI. The hack made waves in the gaming community, and cost Rockstar games millions of dollars.
Kurtaj is a key member of international gang Lapsus$, a group which has attacked many important tech companies such as Uber and Nvidia. The attacks have cost these firms over $10 million. According to the BBC, Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his severe autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts - not if he did so with criminal intent. A mental health assement said he, "continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated."
According to yahoo tech, Judge Patricia Lees sentenced the teen to "remain at a secure hospital for life unless doctors deem him no longer a danger," on the basis that "Kurtaj's skills and desire to commit cyber-crime meant he remained a high risk to the public." It was also stated that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage.
While Kurtaj was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, Kurtaj carried out his infamous hack of Rockstar Games, the company that created Grand Theft Auto. He breached the company using only an Amazon Firestick, hotel tv, and mobile phone. He broke into Rockstar's Slack messaging system, where he said, "if Rockstar does not contact me on Telegram within 24 hours I will start releasing the source code". He then released the 90 videos and source code to the internet forum GTAForums.
According to GamesRadar, Kurtaj has been charged with 12 offenses, including three counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud, and six charges under the Computer Misuse Act.
The GTA VI trailer was released earlier this month, and gained over 100 million views within the first day of being released. In the sentence hearings, Kurtaj's defense team argued that the trailer was so successful that nobody got hurt from Kurtaj's hack, however her honor Judge Lee said that there are real victims from the attacks, both from the Rockstar hacks on the hacks on the other tech giants.
According to the BBC, Rockstar Games told the court the hack cost $5 million to recover from along with thousands of hours of staff time.
A 17-year old Lapsus$ member who worked closely with with Kurtaj was found guilty in the same trial, and was sentenced to an 18 month long Youth Rehabilitation order. The Judge also sentenced the boy for "unpleasant and frightening pattern of stalking and harassment" of two young women.