Massive as the Grand Theft Auto 6 hack was, the industry has been dealing with another enormous and damaging hack in the past week, this time targeting Insomniac Games. While Kurtaj has been tried and sentenced alongside, per the BBC, another unnamed 17-year-old member of the group, a number of other members of Lapsus$ are believed to remain at large.
The leaked videos were taken down quickly by publisher Take-Two Interactive, and Rockstar confirmed the hack was real not long after in a public statement. They encompassed the game's source code and 90 footage clips, all with unfinished assets and other in-development elements. The Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks were, at the time, one of the most massive leaks in gaming history. The trial concluded with Kurtaj being sentenced to an indefinite imprisonment in a secure hospital, with the potential to be freed if doctors determine he is no longer a threat to others. While Kurtaj's defense reportedly argued the success of the recent GTA 6 trailer indicated there had been no measurable negative impact from the hack on Rockstar, Rockstar in turn argued that it had cost the studio $5 million and thousands of hours of staff time. BBC also reports that a mental health assessment in the hearing read that Kurtaj "continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible. He was reportedly violent while in police custody, including "dozens of reports of injury or property damage," according to BBC. Kurtaj was deemed unfit to stand trial due to a medical diagnosis of acute autism, which resulted in a request that the jury simply determine whether or not he was responsible for the attack, not whether or not he'd had criminal intent.
Not long after, he posted the clips and game source on online messageboard GTAForums. Though his laptop had been confiscated at the time, Kurtaj was nonetheless able to hack into Rockstar's internal systems using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV, and a cell phone. Kurtaj was apparently out on bail for the Nvidia attack and in police protection at a Travelodge when the attack was carried out in September of last year. Rockstar Games claimed it spent $5 million to recover from the attack.The hacker primarily responsible for leaking dozens of clips of an in-development Grand Theft Auto 6 has been sentenced to an indefinite imprisonment in a secure hospital.Īccording to BBC, hacker Arion Kurtaj is a member of international hacking group Lapsus$, which has previously carried out numerous attacks on major companies including Nvidia, Microsoft, Samsung, and Uber. The outlet reports that the judge dismissed Kurtaj’s defence that the trailer’s popularity should be considered in the sentencing, saying that Lapsus$ harmed real people and businesses. The official trailer for GTA 6 was released earlier this month, and it got hundreds of millions of views despite the leak of the videos by Kurtaj and the early release of the trailer on X (formerly Twitter).ĪLSO READ| BTS is unbeatable: GTA 6 trailer racks up millions but fails to dethrone Dynamite views fans demand collaboration He was arrested for the last time after this incident.Īnother 17-year-old member of Lapsus$ received an 18-month community sentence, known as a Youth Rehabilitation Order, and a prohibition from using virtual private networks.
He was under police protection at a hotel, but he still managed to hack Rockstar Games by using the Amazon Fire Stick in the room and a “newly purchased smart phone, keyboard and mouse,” the BBC says in another report. Kurtaj was out on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT / EE, a British telecom company, when he leaked 90 GTA 6 gameplay footage in September. The judge heard on Thursday that Kurtaj “had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage,” according to the BBC.ĪLSO READ| Insomniac games leak: Hackers demand $2 million, leak games until 2032Ī mental health evaluation also revealed that Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.” He will remain in the hospital prison for life unless doctors deem him safe to be released. Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.