The hacker responsible for leaking Grand Theft Auto VI videos in development last year has reportedly been locked up in a secure hospital indefinitely. According to BBC News, an 18-year-old individual named Arion Kurtaj, who was part of the infamous cybercrime group Lapsus$, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to an acute diagnosis of autism. So based on a mental assessment, the jury was asked to decide whether the heinous act was committed with criminal intent, resulting in the claim that the individual was “highly motivated” to return to crime. As such, he has been sentenced indefinitely to life in the hospital until he is no longer considered dangerous to humans.
Kurtaj was arrested in September 2022 on suspicion of the Rockstar Games hack, pleading not guilty and going on trial for the crimes his cybercrime group committed against Nvidia and Uber. “The jury was told that while on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and under police protection in a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack,” the report said. The hack was apparently carried out in a hotel room, which he carried out using an Amazon Firestick, a television and a smartphone. (His laptop was reportedly seized after a previous breach attack.) After gaining access to the company's Slack group, he boldly threatened to release the GTA 6 source code within the next 24 hours unless Rockstar negotiated with him via the Telegram messaging app.
Although not explicitly stated, Rockstar may have denied his requests, leading to Kurtaj releasing over 90 clips of the highly anticipated Wilderness video game, in what could be called one of the biggest leaks in gaming history. Earlier this month, the company released the first trailer for GTA VI, showing off some in-engine footage and a glimpse of our two leads, Lucia and Jason. That video was viewed 62 million times within just 13 hours of release, leading Kurtaj's defense team to argue that the leaks had barely made a dent in the game's success and that no serious damage was caused. However, Rockstar argued that the leak ruined thousands of hours in development and affected team morale, causing $5 million in damages for repairs. In addition to Kurtaj, an unnamed 17-year-old man was convicted of participating in the cyber attack on Nvidia and stealing cryptocurrency.
More recently, another AAA game studio Insomniac Games fell victim to a ransomware attack, with the cybercrime group responsible releasing 1.67 TB of confidential data into the wild, including a fully functioning build of the upcoming Wolverine game, emails between employees and their personal data, presentations about future releases, sales figures and more. Game developers around the world have united to give love and support to the affected and exposed hacks that could endanger people's lives.
Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released sometime in 2025 for the current generation PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.
