Hacker who leaked GTA 6 footage given indefinite sentence
A TEENAGER hacked clips of an upcoming Grand Theft Auto game using just an Amazon Firestick, TV and mobile phone.
Arion Kurtaj, 18, has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after being deemed a high public risk due to his cyber-crime skills.
Kurtaj, who has severe autism, breached Rockstar Games’ system while on bail and in police protection for hacking software and tech firms.
He had his laptop confiscated but managed to steal clips of the highly anticipated GTA 6 with a Firestick, his Travelodge telly and a phone.
Kurtaj, a key player in the Lapsus$ hacking group, then blackmailed Rockstar, before posting clips in September last year.
Psychiatrists had deemed Kurtaj, of Oxford, unfit to stand trial at London’s Southwark crown court.
A jury found he committed 12 offences including blackmail and fraud.
He was ordered to a secure hospital by Guildford crown court on Thursday.
A Lapsus$ member, 17, who cannot be named, got an 18-month rehabilitation order.
Kurtaj and the youth were also accused of hacking software company Nvidia in February 2022 before threatening to “release Nvidia Corporation’s intellectual property on to the web” if it did not pay them.
At a sentencing hearing at Guildford Crown Court on Thursday, Kurtaj was given a hospital order, meaning he will remain at a secure hospital unless doctors deem him no longer a danger, a court worker told the PA news agency.
Kurtaj’s defence counsel David Miller described the youngster as “the most vulnerable of adolescents” who was now pitted against huge companies and corporations worth billions, who had unlimited funds and unlimited resources including the FBI, National Crime Agency, Interpol and City of London Police.