The court in the United Kingdom has established that 18-year-old teenager Arion Kurtaj from Oxford was a member of the hacking group Lapsus$, responsible for hacking several technology companies, including Nvidia and Rockstar Games. As a result of these hacks, videos from the upcoming game Grand Theft Auto 6, which Rockstar has not officially released yet, were leaked. The court found out that Kurtaj transmitted the videos from a hotel after being released on bail following his arrest for another hack.
The trial took place in the Southwark Crown Court and lasted for seven weeks. The jury was asked to determine whether Kurtaj was responsible for the actions he was accused of, rather than whether they were committed with criminal intent. The judge deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial after being examined by psychiatrists, so the accused did not give any testimonies.
The jury found Kurtaj guilty on all 12 counts (according to Bloomberg). Along with him, a 17-year-old teenager, whose name cannot be disclosed due to his age, pleaded guilty to two hacking charges, was found guilty of another charge, and acquitted of two others.
The pair met online and started hacking activities in July 2021. On August 1, 2021, Lapsus$ targeted telecommunication companies BT and EE, demanding a ransom of $4 million. The ransom was not paid, but the SIM card data was used to steal cryptocurrency worth £100,000 from associated wallets.
Both hackers were arrested on January 22, 2022, and released pending further investigation. They continued their hacking activities, and in February 2022, it was discovered that they were involved in the successful Lapsus$ attack on Nvidia. The group stole and leaked Nvidia’s internal data, threatening to disclose more if the ransom was not paid. This attack targeted Nvidia employees: they received late-night phone calls and text messages.
Shortly after that, Kurtaj was exposed by competitors, and both hackers were rearrested on March 31, 2022. Due to safety concerns related to doxing, Kurtaj was placed by the police in a hotel and released on bail, with Internet access being restricted.
It was during this time that Kurtaj was involved in the hacking attack on Rockstar Games (as reported by the BBC). During this attack, Kurtaj posted a message on Slack (a company-wide messaging system), saying, “I’m not a Rockstar employee, I’m a rogue actor.” He claimed to have all the data for Grand Theft Auto 6 and threatened to “start leaking the source code” if Rockstar did not contact him within 24 hours. Subsequently, 90 game videos were posted on the GTA forum by a user named TeaPotUberHacker.
During a search of Kurtaj’s hotel room, the police found an Amazon Fire Stick, a smartphone, a keyboard, and a mouse – everything that allowed him to access the Internet. Or, as the prosecution put it, Kurtaj was “caught red-handed.” He was immediately rearrested and remanded in custody until the trial.
The extent of Lapsus$’s success is unquestionable, but the methods they used were both classic fraudulent methods, such as employee phishing, and actual hacking techniques. They were referred to as “digital bandits” by the prosecutors, who specifically noted the group’s public celebration of their work and the subsequent mocking and threats directed at the hacked targets. According to lead prosecutor Kevin Barry, Kurtaj and his Lapsus$ colleagues demonstrated a “teenage desire to show two fingers to those they attacked.”
None of the hacked companies publicly admitted to paying Lapsus$ any ransom, and it is unknown how much money the group made from their activities. It is presumed that members of Lapsus$ remain at large. In October 2022, Brazilian police arrested a person suspected to be part of the group, but subsequently did not report whether any charges were filed or will be filed.
Kurtaj is remanded in custody, and the 17-year-old teenager is released on bail. The sentence for both will be delivered later, and the judge will decide whether Kurtaj should be hospitalized or released under supervision.
Source from www.playground.ru
