A British teenager who stole 90 clips of the unreleased Grand Theft Auto 6 game as part of a hacking spree has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.

Arion Kurtaj, 18, who is autistic, was on bail for hacking the software firm Nvidia and BT/EE and also in police protection at a Travelodge hotel when he continued his hacking and breached Rockstar Games, the company behind GTA, a court heard.

Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj, carried out his cyber attack using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel television and a mobile phone. He broke into the company’s internal Slack messaging system to declare: “If Rockstar does not contact me on Telegram within 24 hours I will start releasing the source code.”

Kurtaj, from Oxford and part of the Lapsus$ hacking group, posted the clips and source code on a forum. He will remain at a secure hospital for life unless doctors deem him no longer a danger, Southwark crown court heard on Thursday.

The case has prompted City of London police to advise parents to be aware of their children’s internet usage.

The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody, with dozens of reports of injury or property damage. Doctors deemed him unfit to stand trial due to his acute autism and the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts, not if he did so with criminal intent.

A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible”, adding: “He is highly motivated.”

SmartyPants:


Are you sure you grasp what you read up there? He has effectively been sentenced to prison for life - he will be held in a prison hospital - because he is not mentally stable enough to understand the full consequences of his actions - hence him admitting that he will commit the crime again if released. A mentally unwell person cannot stand trial.

Numerouno94:


This hacking being carried out by an18yrs old autistic kid using firestick, a tv and a mobile phone is something a technologyically inclined kid is capable of doing over there. Even a 10yrs old kid is capable of such. But it's a crime over there. So u guys should stop seeing this like a rocket science.

Numerouno94:


Oga calm down and do a little research. Kids from China, The USA, The UK, India, Russia etcetera have bn doing more than this on a regular basis. So rest !!. For Yankee no company is immune to being hacked by this crazy kids and dudes despite the tight security.

I reiterate my point, stop seeing all these tins as a rocket science. A 12yrs old kid over there could equally pull a stunt like this.

Nobody is an island of knowledge. I just taught u something new, do more research on it instead of arguing unnecessarily. Gracias.

advanceDNA:
Ojoro...

Someone that threatened the company he hacked and continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible”, adding: “He is highly motivated.” .....is now unfit to stand trial and will remain at a secure hospital for life ....

CIA/FBI/homeland security ...I carry yansh for una......Una welldone ooooo... Una don carry am go una secret office make e dey work for una

Dialpad:
Cant believe the guy is autistic... strange to me

Beststrong:
Saw that on twitter today. The thing is, he is still not ready to stop.

Imagine threatening to continue hacking after his release. Lol