The autistic individual Arion Kurtaj, who hails from Oxford, was a significant member of the multinational gang known as Lapsus$.
Nearly ten million dollars was lost by the gang as a result of their attacks on major technology companies such as Uber, Nvidia, and Rockstar Games.
Kurtaj’s talents and his intent to perpetrate cybercrime, according to the judge, meant that he continued to pose a significant threat to the general public.
Unless the medical staff determines that he is no longer a threat, he will spend the rest of his life in a secure hospital.
During his time in detention, Kurtaj was reportedly violent, as evidenced by the numerous reports of injuries and property damage that were filed against him.
As a result of Kurtaj’s severe autism, the medical professionals declared him unsuitable to stand trial. As a result, the jury was asked to decide whether or not he committed the claimed crimes, rather than whether or not he did so with the intention of committing a crime.
In the course of the sentence hearing, a mental health evaluation was conducted, and it was stated that the defendant “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible.” His motivation is quite high.
During the time that he was under police protection at a Travelodge hotel and on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE, he continued to hack and carried out his most notorious hack. This information was presented to the jury.
In spite of the fact that his laptop was taken away, Kurtaj was able to break into Rockstar, the business that is responsible for Grand Theft Auto, by utilizing an Amazon Firestick, his hotel television, and a mobile phone.
A total of ninety clips from the highly anticipated and yet to be released Grand Theft Auto 6 were stolen by Kurtaj.
“If Rockstar does not contact me on Telegram within twenty-four hours, I will begin releasing the source code,” he declared after breaking into the company’s internal Slack chat system which was used for internal communication.
After that, he uploaded the footage together with the source code to a forum, where he used the username TeaPotUberHacker.
In order to await his trial, he was taken into custody once more.
The trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 was released earlier this month, and it has already received 128 million views on YouTube in just four days.
During the sentencing hearings, the defense team for Kurtaj contended that the popularity of the game’s trailer indicated that Kurtaj’s hack had not caused severe harm to the game developer. They urged that this be taken into consideration when determining the appropriate sentence.
On the other hand, Her Honor Judge Lees stated that there were actual victims and actual harm inflicted by his other repeated hacks on individuals and the businesses that he attacked using Lapsus$.
Rockstar Games was the only company to express to the court that the hack resulted in a loss of five million dollars and thousands of hours of staff effort.
He collaborated with Kurtaj and other members of Lapsus$ to hack the technology firm Nvidia and the phone provider BT/EE in order to steal data. After that, he demanded a ransom of four million dollars, which was not paid.
Additionally, they stole directly from individuals by using their cryptocurrency wallets as a means of theft.
A Youth Rehabilitation Order that will last for 18 months and includes strict supervision as well as a prohibition on accessing virtual private networks (VPNs) online was handed down to the 17-year-old.
The teenager was convicted for what the judge described as a “unpleasant and frightening pattern of stalking and harassment” carried out against two young women. This was in addition to the hacking offenses that he had committed.
The first members of the Lapsus$ group to be convicted are Kurtaj and the one who is 17 years old; nevertheless, it is believed that additional members of the group are still at large.
The cyber-security community was taken aback by the radical strikes carried out by the gang in 2021 and 2022. The organization that originated in the United Kingdom and, according to reports, Brazil was referred to as “digital bandits” in court.
The organization, which is believed to be composed primarily of adolescents, employed con-man-like techniques in addition to computer hacking in order to get access to global firms such as Microsoft, which is a technology powerhouse, and Revolut, which is a digital banking group.
Throughout the course of their rampage, the hackers frequently mocked their victims on the social networking app Telegram in both English and Portuguese. They also publicly applauded their criminal activities.
As a result, the United States Cybersecurity Authorities issued a comprehensive study that investigated Lapsus$ and other teen hacking gangs.
It determined that Lapsus$ had “made clear just how easy it was for its members (juveniles, in some instances) to infiltrate well-defended organisations” .
When it comes to the amount of money that Lapsus$ has made from its cyber-crimes, it is not obvious. There was no public admission of payment from any companies to the hackers, and the hackers did not give the passwords to the bitcoin wallets that were taken.