18-Yr Previous GTA 6 Hacker Sentenced To Life In Hospital Jail

The 18-year outdated hacker answerable for stealing and releasing dozens of clips of Grand Theft Auto 6 final yr has been sentenced to life in hospital jail. He can solely be launched sooner or later if medical doctors resolve he’s now not a hazard to others, the BBC experiences.

Arion Kurtaj was arrested by London police in Oxford September 2022 shortly after a hacking spree ended with tons of in-development footage from Rockstar Video games being unleashed on the web. He pled not-guilty on the time, and later stood trial for cybercrimes related to the hacking outfit Lapsus$ that included breaching Uber and Nvidia along with leaking the beforehand unrevealed blockbuster, GTA 6.

Well being professionals deemed Kurtaj unfit to face trial as a consequence of his acute autism. A jury later decided that he was answerable for the hacks, nevertheless, even when they weren’t allowed to find out felony intent. The depend discovered that Kurtaj managed to hack into Rockstar’s techniques from his lodge room utilizing solely an Amazon Firestick. He openly posted within the firm’s Slack on the time that he was a hacker, and later threatened to launch the GTA 6 supply code except Rockstar negotiated with him over Telegram.

Throughout sentencing, the BBC experiences {that a} psychological well being evaluation decided that Kurtaj “continued to precise the intent to return to cybercrime as quickly as doable,” calling him “extremely motivated.” Courtroom testimony additionally claimed he was violent whereas held in custody for the trial. In consequence, he’ll now be held in a safe hospital for the remainder of his life.

The GTA 6 hack was a part of a wave of latest cyberattacks on massive sport studios and publishers that included, amongst others, CD Projekt Purple, Capcom, and, most lately, Insomniac Video games. Whereas different hacks have uncovered private worker info, the GTA 6 safety breach was restricted to gameplay clips. Although they revealed points of the extremely anticipated sport whereas it was nonetheless a piece in progress, Kurtaj’s attorneys lately argued that the success of GTA 6‘s official reveal trailer, now probably the most watched on YouTube ever, confirmed his assault was not as dangerous to the sport’s gross sales prospects as some, together with Rockstar Video games, might need initially steered.