The 18-year-old Lapsus$ hacker Arion Kurtaj has been sentenced to ‘lifelong TBS’. The Brit leaked images of the upcoming GTA VI game from Rockstar Games prematurely last year. Due to his skills and desire for cybercrime, he would pose too great a social risk.
The court is said to have made the choice to impose hospital prison for an indefinite period partly because Kurtaj was violent while in custody. There are reportedly dozens of reports of injuries and material damage to him, the BBC reports. Doctors reportedly deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to autism, prompting the jury to determine whether he intended to return to cybercrime. According to the jury, he was ‘highly motivated’ to do so.
The team defending the hacker argued that the success of the GTA VI trailer implied that Kurtaj’s hack had done little damage to the developer – the trailer achieved the world record for most viewed game announcement in one day. However, the judge states that there are indeed victims and damage has been caused. Rockstar Games told the court it cost $5 million to fix the hack, as well as thousands of hours of staff time. In addition, the judge states that he and Lapsus$ caused significant damage with other hacks on individuals and companies.
Another Lapsus$ member was found guilty in the same trial. This 17-year-old hacker worked with Kurtaj and other members to hack Nvidia and BT/EE, among others. They also stole crypto from individuals’ crypto wallets. The 17-year-old, whose name has not been given due to his age, has been sentenced to 18 months of youth rehabilitation with intensive supervision.
Kurtaj was responsible for, among other things, the Rockstar hack in which 3GB of internal GTA VI images were leaked last year. In total, there was more than 50 minutes of gameplay on the street. Among other things, it was announced early on that the next Grand Theft Auto title will have a female playable character. Earlier this month, this main character, named Lucia, was featured in the first trailer of GTA VI. The successor to GTA V will be released in 2025 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series provision, although the measure can in principle be extended indefinitely. In the United Kingdom, where the 18-year-old hacker comes from, it is possible to send someone to a hospital instead of prison indefinitely. There is therefore no need to extend the measure, although the measure, which resembles TBS, can end when doctors no longer consider someone to be a danger to society.
