An 18-year-old was hospitalized indefinitely after the huge leak regarding GTA 6. Now he is in prison instead of the hospital.
What kind of hack was that? In September 2022, there was a huge leak regarding GTA 6. A hacker group called Lapsus$ gained access to Rockstar Games and released 3.4 GB of confidential data related to GTA 6, including 90 videos with 3 minutes of gameplay and a ton of images.
As a result of the hack, two teenagers were arrested and convicted in the UK: a 17-year-old and the 18-year-old main perpetrator Arion Kurtaj. The latter had been hospitalized indefinitely in a secure hospital since December 2023 because he was deemed unfit for trial due to his autism. Kurtaj is to be released from the hospital only when he is no longer considered a danger. Previously, he had reportedly become violent during the investigation and had promised to return to cybercrime as soon as the opportunity arose.
Now BBC journalist Joe Tidy reports on Bluesky that Kurtaj has been released from the hospital. He is currently in a regular prison awaiting retrial. In November, he will have to face a regular criminal trial.
18-year-old hacks GTA 6 with a FireTV stick
This is what it has to do with the FireTV stick: Even before the duo of Kurtaj and the 17-year-old accomplice hacked Rockstar Games, they had already been arrested twice for hacks:
- in January 2022, for hacking the telecommunications company BT and the mobile provider EE and using the stolen SIM data from five victims to steal nearly £100,000 from their cryptocurrency accounts. These accounts had been secured through the compromised SIM identities of the mobile phones.
- in February 2022, they were responsible for a ransom hack at NVIDIA.
After Kurtaj was arrested for the NVIDIA hack, he was reportedly placed in a hotel with an internet ban and under strict bail conditions, according to BBC. The hotel accommodation was for his own safety, as rival hackers had spread his contact information shortly before his detention.
In this hotel room, the police eventually found an Amazon FireTV stick connected to the hotel TV, which allowed the perpetrator to connect to cloud computing services with a newly purchased smartphone, a keyboard, and a mouse. This way, he gained access to Rockstar Games’ confidential data.
When the retrial of the hacker takes place in November, the gaming world will be looking forward to the release of GTA 6. About 4 years after the leak, the action game will finally be released for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. In the meantime, the game can even be officially pre-ordered.
If you still want to prepare before the release on November 19, we have put together a small list of things you can do before the launch on MeinMMO. Here’s the list: GTA 6 will be released in 4 months: These 5 things you must do by November
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!