It’s been revealed that Rockstar Games was hacked by a teenager using an Amazon Firestick, a hotel TV and a mobile phone.
Last September, over 90 videos and screenshots from Grand Theft Auto 6 surfaced online ahead of the game’s public reveal.
Rockstar Games confirmed the “early development footage” had been “illegally accessed and downloaded”. Later that month, a teenager in Oxfordshire was arrested in relation to the hack.
In July, it was confirmed that 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj would face 12 offences, including six charges under the Computer Misuse Act, three blackmail charges, and two counts of fraud but was deemed “unfit” to stand trial.
Earlier this week, Kurtaj was sentenced to an “indefinite hospital order” with a judge ruling that his skills and desire to commit cyber-crime meant he remained a high risk to the public (via BBC). He will remain at a secure hospital until he is no longer deemed a danger. His involvement as a key member of international “digital bandit” crime gang Lapsus$ was also confirmed.
Kurtaj was sentenced alongside a seventeen-year-old accomplice, with the Lapsus$ members involved in the $4million (£3.1million) ransom of data stolen from Nvidia and BT/EE.
During court proceedings, further details about Kurtaj’s crimes were revealed. The jury was told that Kurtaj was in police protection at a Travelodge hotel when he hacked Rockstar. At the time, he was on bail for hacking both Nvidia and BT/EE. Police had confiscated his laptop, but Kurtaj managed to steal 90 clips of Grand Theft Auto 6 using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.
He used Rockstar’s internal Slack channel to blackmail the company before sharing clips and the source code online, via the username TeaPotUberHacker.
Despite his defence lawyer arguing that the huge success of Grand Theft Auto 6’s reveal earlier this year meant that Kurtaj’s crimes had little impact, Rockstar claimed his actions had cost the company over $5million (£3.95million) as well as thousands of hours of labour.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to launch 2025 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S and will see players return to world of Vice City.
In other news, Bethesda Softworks has shared its 2024 plans for Fallout 76, with a string of updates introducing seasonal events alongside new quests, maps and rewards.