Arion Kurtaj, the 18-year-old Lapsus$ hacker responsible for leaking early clips of GTA 6 online, has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order, per the BBC. The ruling was made due to Kurtaj’s acute autism diagnosis, which prevented the jury from determining whether he committed the alleged hack with criminal intent.
According to a mental health ruling in the court case, Kurtaj was obsessed with hacking, and “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible.” He was described as “highly motivated” and considered a risk – as supported by the fact that he managed to breach Rockstar Games while he was on bail and in police protection, and without his primary laptop.
The company was reportedly hacked using an Amazon Firestick, a hotel TV, and a mobile phone. Using these tools, Kurtaj stole 90 clips and source code of GTA 6 from Rockstar servers, and threatened to post them if the company did not contact him via Telegram within 24 hours. When the deadline expired, Kurtaj posted them online, revealing the first, early glimpses of GTA 6 to the public.
Read: Rockstar is ‘extremely disappointed’ by major GTA 6 leak
In arguing his case to the jury, Kurtaj’s lawyers claimed there was little harm to Rockstar in the posting of these clips, as the recently-released GTA 6 trailer still earned 128 million views in its first four days online, indicating widespread popularity.
This defence was rejected, however, as the judge ruled there were “real victims and real harm” from Kurtaj’s actions, towards both Rockstar Games and individuals impacted by his other acts of hacking. Rockstar, for its part, claimed the hack cost it USD $5 million, plus thousands of hours of staff time.
In addition to Kurtaj, a 17-year-old who can’t be named due to his age, was also found guilty for his work with Lapsus$, which included hacking Nvidia and BT/EE to ransom individuals for their data. He was sentenced to an 18-month-long Youth Rehabilitation Order, and a ban on using VPNs online.
Kurtaj will remain in hospital custody until doctors deem he is no longer a threat to others, and will not continue hacking. Police are still investigating other members of Lapsus$, which is thought to be a group of largely teenagers.
