Teen Who Breached Rockstar Games, Leaking GTA 6 Clips Causing Billions in Losses, Receives Final Judgement

Prosecutors at a London Court look to prosecute the teenager who hacked Uber and then blackmailed GTA developers Rockstar Games.

As technology becomes more and more sophisticated, it also brings more malice. Almost all popular websites or digital organization are prone to cyber-attacks these days. Irrespective of the multiple protection strategies implemented by tech companies, hackers always seem to find new ways to cause problems. In the latest event of such instances, a teenage member of the hacking group Lapsus$ has been charged with fraud and blackmailing which has corporations worried yet again.

Ransom attacks on Rockstar Games’ GTA 6 and Uber

Both Uber and Rockstar Games have billions of dollars worth of products and services. Grand Theft Auto is one of the most anticipated games in the industry with GTA 6 details being highly speculated among fans. The last title was released in 2013 and set the industry benchmarks for devs to follow. Under such circumstances, it’s easy to understand why Rockstar Games would be a good target for hackers seeking ransom money.

Arion Kurtaj, the accused targeted Uber and fintech company Revoult, along with Rockstar. Kurtaj used Rockstar’s Slack to send messages to every staff of the company claiming to release the source code for GTA VI. He is also charged for blackmailing British broadband service provider BT Group and demanded $4 million as ransom. The “network intrusion” suffered by Rockstar in 2022 resulted in a lot of gameplay clips becoming public without organizational authorization.

Rockstar and Uber focused on serving justice

Rockstar Games made statements that made it clear that the hack was not a pleasant experience for the company. The authorities claimed that the staff suffered from mental stress and were upset thanks to Kurtaj’s antics. Furthermore, Kurtaj also caused nearly $3 million damages to Uber in September 2022. He also gained access to information of almost 5,000 customers of Revoult.

Although Uber did not mention Kurtaj then, they did suspect that the attacker was the same person as the one behind Rockstar’s problems. Arion and one of his allies also targeted GPU makers Nvidia and threatened to release their data. All these made the companies join hands with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to find the culprit.

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Kurtaj has appealed to be mentally unstable, hinting that he is not fit to stand trial. However, prosecutors have charged him with counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud and three charges under the Computer Misuse Act.

What do you make out of the issue and how do you think Kurtaj should be tried?

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