December 22nd 2023.
Arion Kurtaj, a teenage hacker, was sectioned for life after stealing 90 clips of the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 game while in police protection. The court heard he was part of an international hacking gang called Lapsus$, and their attacks cost the firms involved nearly £8 million.
Kurtaj was on bail for previous hacks on Nvidia and BT/EE when he was placed in police protection in a Travelodge hotel. Despite having his laptop confiscated, he managed to carry out the attack using his phone, an Amazon Firestick and a TV in his hotel room. He broke into the company’s internal Slack messaging system and threatened to leak the source code if Rockstar did not contact him within 24 hours.
Kurtaj was deemed unfit to stand trial due to the severity of his autism, so the jury was only asked to determine whether he committed the alleged actions, not whether there was any criminal intent. Furthermore, a mental health assessment revealed that he still intended to return to cyber-crime as soon as he could. The court also heard he had been violent in custody and linked him to dozens of incidents in which people were injured or property was damaged.
The presiding judge said Kurtaj’s skills and motivation meant he still posed a high risk to the public, so he will remain in a secure hospital for life unless doctors decide he is no longer a danger. A 17-year-old, also described as a ‘key player’ in Lapsus$, was found guilty in the same trial of various offences. Kurtaj’s defence counsel, David Miller, described his client as ‘the most vulnerable of adolescents’.
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