The individual responsible for leaking details about Grand Theft Auto 6 in September 2022 has been given an indefinite hospital order after being involved in cyber-crimes.
According to the BBC, 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj, from Oxford, was part of the hacker group Lapsus$, which had previously targeted Nvidia and Uber. Although Kurtaj was found unfit to stand trial, a mental health evaluation indicated that he “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible.”
A judge ruled that Kurtaj poses a significant risk to the public due to his desire to commit further cyber-crimes and his ability to do so. Additionally, the court heard that he had been violent while in custody, and there were numerous reports of property damage and injury. He will remain in a secure hospital indefinitely unless doctors later determine that he is no longer a threat.
The hack on Rockstar Games was carried out by Kurtaj while he was under police protection in a hotel, despite being on bail for other cyber-crimes, as the jury was told. He allegedly used his mobile phone, hotel TV, and an Amazon Fire Stick to execute the hack, which Rockstar Games stated cost the company $5 million and required thousands of hours to recover from.
At the time of the hack, there was no released footage of GTA 6, and the game’s title hadn’t been revealed yet. It was only known that “active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway.”
Shortly after the breach, Rockstar Games issued a public statement acknowledging that it had “experienced a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third-party gained illegal access to and downloaded confidential information from our systems.” The statement expressed disappointment that details of their upcoming game had been shared in this manner.
GTA 6 has now been officially unveiled, and is one of the most highly anticipated upcoming games on the horizon.