An Amazon Firestick, a TV and a mobile phone are enough to ‘hack’ GTA 6 and blackmail Rockstar by leaking trailer clips
The world of video games has had quite a few busy days with the long-awaited trailer for the long-awaited GTA 6 – what will happen when it comes out and people start playing it. On December 5, many finally calmed their desire to know more about what this game will be like, but it seems that it has been involved in some controversy.
Arion Kurtaj, a hacker 18 years old, and despite having been admitted to a psychiatric hospital indefinitely, he was only able to use an Amazon Firestick, a TV and a cell phone to blackmail and leak Grand Theft Auto 6 clips.
Originally from Oxford and a prominent member of the international gang Lapsus$, Kurtaj, diagnosed with autism, faced this sentence due to his criminal activities, which include attacks on technology giants such as Uber, Nvidia, Microsoft, Revolut and Rockstar Games, causing million-dollar losses.
Some Lapsus$ attacks between 2021 and 2022 shocked the world of cybersecurity, revealing the audacity of these “digital gangs” mostly made up of teenagers. However, his most notable feat has been hacking to Rockstar Games, creators of GTA, where he stole 90 clips from GTA 6 and threatened to release the source code if the company did not contact him within 24 hours.
Kurtaj stole 90 clips from the unreleased and highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6
As for the modus operandi of this teenager — already in the psychiatric hospital — broke into the company’s internal Slack messaging system to say: “If Rockstar doesn’t contact me on Telegram within 24 hours, I will start publishing the source code.” Then posted the clips and source code on a forum under the username TeaPotUberHacker.
The defense argued that the success of the GTA 6 trailer indicated that the hacking It didn’t cause much damage to the game developer. However, the judge noted real victims and damages caused by Lapsus$’s multiple attacks. Rockstar Games estimated losses of five million dollars and thousands of work hours due to the hacking.
A 17-year-old member of Lapsus$ was also convicted in the same trial. Both are the first of the group to be convicted, but other members are suspected of remaining at large.
