18-Year-Old Hacker Sentenced to Psychiatric Hospital after GTA VI Data Theft

Only 18-year-old hacker Arion Kurtaj, who attacked Rockstar’s servers in September of last year and stole a huge amount of data and information from the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI, was sent to a psychiatric hospital with security by a court in Great Britain, as reported VGC. He had previously been unable to stand trial due to his acute autism, according to doctors, and his condition did not improve in any way during the proceedings. Therefore, the court only looked at whether he had committed the alleged acts, not whether he had committed a crime, and ultimately concluded that what had actually happened was what earlier reports had suggested. As a member of the Lapsus group, Kurtaj actually attacked Rockstar – but also Uber and Nvidia – and due to his health condition, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital with security until he no longer poses a threat to the company.

Nevertheless, the court pointed to a whole range of circumstances that were connected with Kurtaj’s detention, his behavior, but also his abilities, due to which, for example, BBC informs about a potential lifelong stay in a hospital. “Kurtaj behaved violently during his stay in custody, dozens of cases of injury to other prisoners or damage to property were recorded. Kurtaj’s skills and desire to commit cybercrime mean that he remains a high danger to society,” the BBC quotes the court’s conclusion. In addition, the mental health report states that Kurtaj has continued to express an intention to return to cybercrime as soon as possible and that he remains highly motivated, so these findings also contributed to the decision to place him in a treatment facility.

Also interesting are the details regarding the attack itself, which was supposed to take place at a time when Kurtaj was already under police protection at the Travelodge hotel after previous attacks on Nvidia and BT Mobile. Even though his laptop was confiscated, Rockstar was able to attack through an Amazon Firestick device, a hotel television and a cell phone. At the time, Kurtaj stole GTA VI data, including approximately 90 demos, and also broke into the company’s Slack account, where he threatened and blackmailed developers. Arion Kurtaj’s defense attorney has now argued that considering the huge interest in the recently released official trailer of the said game and the success that the Rockstar studio celebrated as a result, it proves that the hacker did not cause any serious damage to the developers and asked that this fact be taken into account in the sentencing. However, the judge said there were real victims and real damage caused by his other numerous hacking attacks as a member of Lapsus. In addition, Rockstar alone stated in court that the attacks cost it approximately $5 million and, most importantly, thousands of cumulative staff hours in dealing with the aftermath and increasing overall protection.

A 17-year-old member of the same group, whose name cannot be released due to his young age, as well as other details of his case, was found guilty along with Arion Kurtaj.

2023-12-22 09:31:27
#hacker #attacked #Rockstar #treatment #center #Vortex