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Hackers

British Teen Gets Potential Life Sentence for Grand Theft Auto VI Hack

Rockstar Games told a U.K. court that it spent $5 million to recover from the hack. Is that worth the rest of a teenager's life?

Joe Lancaster | 12.27.2023 12:10 PM

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Logo for the video game Grand Theft Auto VI, with the logo for its developer Rockstar Games in the foreground. | Angga Budhiyanto/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom
(Angga Budhiyanto/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

Last week, a judge in the U.K. sentenced a teenager to an indefinite hospitalization for committing cybercrimes.

In September 2022, a user named Teapotuberhacker uploaded 90 videos onto the internet forum GTAForums. Collectively, the videos constituted more than 50 minutes of unfinished gameplay footage from Grand Theft Auto VI, a long-anticipated video game under development by Rockstar Games.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Rockstar Games confirmed the authenticity of the footage, blaming the leak on a "network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems." At the time, video game blog Kotaku called it "one of the largest video game leaks in history."

On September 22, just days after the leak, London Police arrested a British teenager for the hack. As it happened, the suspect—later identified as 17-year-old Arion Kurtaj, a member of the cybercrime gang Lapsus$—had already been arrested for hacking tech company Nvidia and U.K. telecom BT/EE. Even though he was in police custody at a Travelodge and his laptop had been confiscated, Kurtaj managed to hack into Rockstar using only his cell phone, a hotel TV, and an Amazon Firestick.

In August, a jury determined that Kurtaj had committed the acts alleged, although this was different than a guilty verdict: "Kurtaj is autistic and psychiatrists deemed him not fit to stand trial so he did not appear in court to give evidence," the BBC reported. "The jury were asked to determine whether or not he did the acts alleged - not if he did it with criminal intent." The outlet further reported that "Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage."

Last week, according to the BBC, Judge Patricia Lees sentenced the teen to "remain at a secure hospital for life unless doctors deem him no longer a danger," on the basis that "Kurtaj's skills and desire to commit cyber-crime meant he remained a high risk to the public."

But…what exactly is the harm that has been alleged? In fairness, Kurtaj not only hacked firms like Rockstar and BT/EE but he also blackmailed the companies, asking the latter for $4 million (which was not paid).

The Guardian noted after the Grand Theft Auto hack that "there will be financial consequences, as Rockstar investigates the leak and likely evaluates working practices," while its parent company "may well face a dip in its stock value as well as uncomfortable questions from shareholders."

No doubt, the leak was embarrassing, and Rockstar told the court that it spent $5 million to recover from the hack. But it would be difficult to make the case that Rockstar was irreparably harmed by the unauthorized disclosure: Earlier this month, when the company finally released the official first-look trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, it accrued more than 90 million views in 24 hours—more than any other video game reveal in YouTube history, according to Guinness World Records.

Speaking of records, 2013's Grand Theft Auto V, the previous title in the franchise, has sold more than 185 million copies, more than any game in history with the exceptions of Minecraft and Tetris. After the trailer debuted, the BBC's Eric Alt wrote that the franchise's sixth installment "may not only succeed – but blow its predecessor's revenue out of the water."

"In sentencing hearings, Kurtaj's defence team argued that the success of the game's trailer indicated that Kurtaj's hack had not caused serious harm to the game developer and asked that this be factored into the sentencing," the BBC reported last week. But the judge "said that there were real victims and real harm caused from his other multiple hacks on individuals and the companies he attacked with Lapsus$."

Perhaps so. But it's worth asking if Kurtaj's crimes are worth potentially spending the rest of his life in custody, especially when the jury that condemned him was not even asked to consider whether he possessed criminal intent.

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NEXT: How FDR Emasculated the Black Press in World War II

Joe Lancaster is an assistant editor at Reason.

HackersCriminal JusticeAutismDisabilitiesVideo GamesUnited KingdomEnglandTeenagersCybersecurityCrime
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  1. Chumby   2 years ago

    Cheeky Leaky Teen Provides Sneaky Peaky

  2. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   2 years ago

    Got some mad skillz, maybe, and I think intellectual property is a fraud. But this kid certainly seems like a danger to society. So far all he's done is annoy companies with silly blackmail efforts. But he's proven he needs a guardian, seems to me.

    1. mad.casual   2 years ago

      Yeah. I remain unconvinced he will damage the IP any more or less than Rockstar will (We launch in 2024 2025 with a game full of women so retardedly pear-potato shaped it makes Elastigirl from The Incredibles look realistically sexy!), but agreed, he seems bent on causing harm to himself and others.

      1. JesseAz   2 years ago

        Given the standards of left lawfare where you get 128M because Giuliani said your name, 800M because someone said your software sucked, 10M because you falsely claimed Trump raped you and he denied it..Rockstar probably deserves at least 1B.

        1. JoeB   2 years ago

          And if you decided to check the Jan 6 protest website on Jan 7, life sentence!

        2. Me, Myself and I   2 years ago

          When the defendant has to prove with preponderance of the evidence that what they said is true to avoid being liable for defamation, this is what happens. If you call someone a liar, you then have to prove that, more likely than not, what they said wasn't true AND they believed it wasn't true. And, obviously, Trump proved the first point or he would've had to pay E. Jean Carrol compensation for the rape. But he failed to prove that she didn't believe he raped her, and she wasn't simply misinformed about when sexual abuse crosses the line into rape.

          The lesson is, firstly, it's stupid that the standards are different for ordinary people and for public figures, since if Trump wants to counter-sue her for defaming him for her false rape accusations, he would have to prove that she had actual malice, and wasn't simply misinformed. Whereas she didn't have to prove that when suing him, since she was a public figure. And if she did have to prove that, she probably would've lost. Although, the jury did rule that Trump acted maliciously and awarded punitive damages, which makes me think they're probably a bunch of Democrats who assume everything Trump says and does is evil.

          And secondly, if someone says something untrue, don't call them a liar. Instead, say that they're either lying or misinformed. That way, if they sue you for defamation, you only have to prove that what they said wasn't true, and you don't also have to prove that they lied intentionally.

        3. Incredulous   2 years ago

          Good points. It's an insane legal system. Totally insane.

  3. But SkyNet is a Private Company   2 years ago

    Holy shit, let’s just let him keep hacking and blackmailing. What could go wrong? A few million here, a few million there, sensitive info leaked, important systems shut down, autists will be autists…

    1. JesseAz   2 years ago

      I just want to know when autism became a defense against committing crimes.

      1. mad.casual   2 years ago

        Sounds like he got an indefinite sentence with the distinction between "time off for good behavior" and "until cured of autism" being a bit of a moot detail lost-in-translation to me.

      2. Me, Myself and I   2 years ago

        The insanity defense has been a thing for a long time. Obviously, most autusts can't claim insanity, but some people with very low-functioning autism probably could.
        Plus, all the insanity defense means is they'll be sent to a mental hospital until they're no longer a danger to the public, rather being sent to prison until either a set period of time passes or they're no longer a danger to the public (whichever happens sooner). And yes, regular prisoners also get released when they're no longer a danger to the public. It's called parole.
        But a mental hospital is probably nicer than a prison.

      3. Incredulous   2 years ago

        Yeah, I don't know how it's relevant. It seems like he's higher functioning than 99% of humanity.

    2. VULGAR MADMAN   2 years ago

      A clever government would put him to work.

      1. CE   2 years ago

        But when has there ever been a clever government?

      2. Muchos   2 years ago

        This is the only intelligent answer. Everyone else misses by a mile. The true concern is the value of a company more important than taking of a life? This is the fight. Not all the other ignorance below. If you will accept this? Next you will ‘go along’ with removing a hand for stealing. Putting this kid on a ‘good path’ is the intelligent alternative to the ignorant humanity below.

        1. Social Justice is neither   2 years ago

          So stealing and blackmail are fine to you because how dare there be punishments. With this logic GTA, B&E and any sort of fraud is fine, and what about the poor pyromaniac, are they just fine burning down buildings as long as nobody gets killed? Congrats on revealing yourself as a retard.

    3. Chip Watkins   2 years ago

      With his skills, the USG should put him to work (closely supervised, of course) hacking the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and NORKs!

    4. Ride 'Em   2 years ago

      I think hacking should be a hanging offense. My wife got hacked and it took every atom in my body to not say: "How could you be so stupid to click on that link".

    5. Carey Allison   2 years ago

      Strange as it sounds, if he'd hacked the company just to prove he could, and caused $5mil worth of damages, he'd deserve some time in prison. Circumstances here as described are that a repeat offender hacked the company and caused $5M worth of damages, and then tried to extort the company for money. Life may be too long. Twenty years doesn't seem exorbitant as part of the function of penal law is deterrence. Whether his confinement should be in a prison or secure (prison) hospital should be determined on a case-by-case basis, but some serious time served is not disproportionate.

  4. Agammamon   2 years ago

    >In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Rockstar Games confirmed the authenticity of the footage, blaming the leak on a "network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems." At the time, video game blog Kotaku called it "one of the largest video game leaks in history."

    Not because Rockstar 'spent 5 million' - the number is, IMO, irrelevant.

    Not because 'Its just a videogame'.

    Because, at the end of the day, this isn't just a kid screwing around, but a criminal, part of a larger hacking ring, that tried to extort the company after they broke in and copied their data.

    1. But SkyNet is a Private Company   2 years ago

      Hey man, intellectual property is like bogus and stuff

      1. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   2 years ago

        I believe it is. That doesn't make this kid an angel or hero or liberator.

        1. JesseAz   2 years ago

          So youre fine with a company spending millions of dollars on IRAD to make products cheaper and better but then letting everyone else choose to utilize the outcome of those costs freely?

          Your beliefs leads to increased security costs, which drive up consumer costs and reduced money on research.

          1. mad.casual   2 years ago

            So youre fine with a company spending millions of dollars on IRAD to make products cheaper and better but then letting everyone else choose to utilize the outcome of those costs freely?

            Uh, what?

            Just because my bank uses top-notch security software and surveillance cameras doesn't mean the next bank over might not have a better business model because they pay some guy less than half as much to stand there with a gun for 8 hours. Neither one should be legal to break into and the act of breaking in should be a crime whether anything is stolen or not.

            Admittedly, $5M in the background of $10M for patently false accusations makes sense but pretending that someone stole $5M worth of near-infinitely reproducible business cards drives prices up also.

            1. JesseAz   2 years ago

              We are talking about the belief that stolen information has no value and therefore is not protected once stolen.

              That is a belief that leads to higher costs and something China loves to participate in. I was very clear on the downsides to not respecting IP. It leads to a reduction to research as well as increased consumer costs from security costs.

              The libertarian belief that stolen IP has no value and therefore stolen IP should be free doesn't recognize any form of non material property rights, even when it has value.

              We aren't talking about federally funded research here. An item of value was stolen. If it had no value then there would be no loss.

              To put this in simple terms.

              If a hacker stole your CC, DOB, name, zip code... is it protected property? It can be used to rob you, steal your identity, affect your credit,etc.

              But the belief information is not property says hackers can freely trade the above without consequence. So how far does your belief extend?

              1. mad.casual   2 years ago

                To put this in simple terms.

                To put this in your own fair terms, bring me the fair market value of a stolen zip code with receipts.

                Otherwise, it's all property, even property no one can hold, touch, or use, has value every bit as much as all labor, even labor the product of which no one can hold, touch, or use, has value by simple decree and government edict.

              2. retiredfire   2 years ago

                Protection of intellectual property was important enough, as far back as the dawn of this country, for the Framers to include securing such in Article 8 of the Constitution.
                Yeah, it's pretty fucking important.

                1. mad.casual   2 years ago

                  It was so important that, rather than specifically laying out "3/5ths" or "1 Representative for every 30,000 people" or specifying that natives not be included in the census, they clearly and exhaustively delineated the means and term of IP protection to be "limited".

                  It's weird how people who claim to be libertarians who read The Constitution as a limit on the power of government will read 'limited' as 'arbitrarily long for the term deemed useful and/or necessary by the filer as enforced by a to-be-established patent and trademark office in succession of any rights or abilities as established anywhere else in this document'.

                  Further, *unlike* 3/5ths or 'fully semi-automatic with the thing that goes up', our FF almost certainly did not foresee infinite digital duplication and the expansion of the digital space beyond what one mind or, potentially, all the minds on Earth could contain.

                  You morons sound like "Lincoln gave us the The Homestead Acts for settling The West, so that's how we should allot parcels of intellectual space."

          2. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   2 years ago

            Stop hyperventilating. I said nothing of the sort. I believe the hallmark of property is control; if you can't control a house, a ranch, or a car, you can't sell it or rent it. And ideas can only be controlled by not disclosing them.

            At the same time Jack Valenti was waging war on MP3, some dame in a literary counterpart organization was giving speeches demanding libraries charge fees for loaning books, and actually floating the rant that it was immoral for parents to read to kids without buying an extra copy.

            Intellectual property is an oxymoron. If Rockstar couldn't control it and keep it secret from hackers, that's their fault just as much as if a rancher doesn't maintain his fences to keep his cattle from straying, or a homeowner who doesn't lock his front door.

            1. JesseAz   2 years ago

              Lol. I like how you started with a false claim of hyperventilating.

              And ideas can only be controlled by not disclosing them.

              The article is literally about hacking to steal information. What the fuck are you talking about. Protection of IP has a cost whether you admit to it or not. A company choosing not to disclose should continue that allowance even if it is stolen which you clearly don't agree with. This isn't about a company choosing disclosure but theft when they don't.

              Intellectual property is an oxymoron. If Rockstar couldn’t control it and keep it secret from hackers, that’s their fault just as much as if a rancher doesn’t maintain his fences to keep his cattle from straying, or a homeowner who doesn’t lock his front door.

              And then it gets even dumber. This person BROKE into a secured server. It wasn't an unlocked door. Your analogy would be that the robber gets to keep the money they stole from the bank after breaking and entering.

            2. JesseAz   2 years ago

              Let me dumb this down even more for you.

              If a waiter uses a CC scanner and takes your CC information, are they free to use it whenever they want for any nefarious reason they want because you gave up control? Think through your ideals.

              1. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   2 years ago

                I tell you what. Why don't you dumb it down so much that you leave out the part where I said he belongs off the street?

                1. JesseAz   2 years ago

                  You created a strawman. Congrats! This your response?

                  But SkyNet is a Private Company 2 hours ago
                  Flag Comment Mute User
                  Hey man, intellectual property is like bogus and stuff

                  Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf 2 hours ago
                  Flag Comment Mute User
                  I believe it is.

                  1. Nazi-Chipping Warlock   2 years ago

                    So you... Literally left out the part where he said the kid belongs off the street.

                    That's impressive.

              2. mad.casual   2 years ago

                If a waiter uses a CC scanner and takes your CC information, are they free to use it whenever they want for any nefarious reason they want because you gave up control? Think through your ideals.

                Is there a reason why you conflate personal information with protected information and other miscellaneous information or is, in your mind, all information protected and literally has its ownership controlled by governments?

                Because the way you ignore the fact that if the waiter took your cash and just spent it somewhere else or took some of your jewelry and hocked it somewhere else makes the artifact of information immaterial to the crime feels an awful lot like the selective conflation between migrants who simply cross borders and migrants who vote themselves out of jobs, consume social welfare without paying in, and turn the host communities that didn't want them into the shitholes they fled.

                1. Muchos   2 years ago

                  This is the only intelligent answer. Everyone else misses by a mile. The true concern is the value of a company more important than taking of a life? This is the fight. Not all the other ignorance below. If you will accept this? Next you will ‘go along’ with removing a hand for stealing. Putting this kid on a ‘good path’ is the intelligent alternative to the ignorant humanity below.

                  1. But SkyNet is a Private Company   2 years ago

                    Taking a life? GFY, tard, he’s in a psych hospital for a few months

            3. Social Justice is neither   2 years ago

              Are you retarded? This isn't trying to control the observable chemical make-up of the pills you're taking where that thought makes some sense. Here we're talking about people actively bypassing security to take what is not otherwise observable. Kinda like blaming the rancher for not maintaining his fence when the rustler tore open a hole in the actively maintained fence or blaming the homeowner because the burglars broke a window to skip the locked door.

      2. mad.casual   2 years ago

        Right. The crime was essentially B&E. Whether he stole $10M worth of stuff or nothing he still broke in. If he took $5 worth of their stuff, sold it for $10M and they claimed it cost them $5M, as long as the people buying weren't in on the B&E/theft, they didn't commit a crime.

        It's weird how non-libertarians hold this "Nothing without the state, nothing outside the state.", "Despite the fact that a digital artifact can be copied near-infinitely, possession of a copy of an artifact by anyone could/should be regarded as a crime inherently." mentality.

  5. Agammamon   2 years ago

    >later identified as 17-year-old Arion Kurtaj, a member of the cybercrime gang Lapsus$

    Ah, how well Old Blighty has been 'enriched' by immigration and 'diversity'.

  6. Agammamon   2 years ago

    > The outlet further reported that "Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage."

    Nah, nah, let the lad out. Boys will be boys, right? I mean who among us hasn't been a violent 17 year old working with an international criminal organization before we graduated high school and straightened our lives out?

    1. A Thinking Mind   2 years ago

      If you don't want the state to give him justice, just let him out into the community and let them handle it.

    2. Ben of Houston   2 years ago

      I have to agree. That small footnote completely changes everything.
      If he had been just a bored kid who is really good at getting into things, that would be one thing. However, repeatedly injuring people and breaking things could clearly indicate that he needs to be kept in protective custody.

  7. A Thinking Mind   2 years ago

    The outlet further reported that "Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage."

    Okay, this feels a bit like burying the lede, now, doesn't it? He lashes out violently against people.

    But…what exactly is the harm that has been alleged? In fairness, Kurtaj not only hacked firms like Rockstar and BT/EE but he also blackmailed the companies, asking the latter for $4 million (which was not paid).

    Okay, who writes these sentences back to back? Blackmailing is definitely harmful regardless of whether there's an actual payout, and regardless if the information leak is harmful in itself. Threatening to do something to someone unless they pay you is definitely a NAP violation.

    Perhaps so. But it's worth asking if Kurtaj's crimes are worth potentially spending the rest of his life in custody, especially when the jury that condemned him was not even asked to consider whether he possessed criminal intent.

    An "indefinite" hospitalization isn't the same thing as a permanent one. If he's lashing out at people, causing harm to them, and continuing to commit crimes even while in custody, you probably need to assure that he's not going to be a potential danger to the community when he's released. Sorry if it seems "unfair" that it's happening to an autistic teenager. If he ever receives sufficient treatment to be released, though, then he can be released.

    1. But SkyNet is a Private Company   2 years ago

      Joe Lancaster writes these sentences.
      Enough to ignore all of his future work

      1. R Mac   2 years ago

        Reason continues to lose credibility for legitimate criminal justice reform with stupidity and narrative shitting.

    2. mad.casual   2 years ago

      Threatening to do something to someone as predicate to a crime unless they pay you is definitely a NAP violation.

      FIFY. But, agreed, Reason is notoriously bad for this (not-so-)morally ambiguous, BOAF SIDEZ bullshit.

      "Follow our contract as written, or else (it's null and void)." isn't exactly a crime.

      "Follow our contract that I've violated up front or I'll make you regret you didn't stick to our contract." is at least not freely contracting, if not a crime.

    3. Social Justice is neither   2 years ago

      If the kid's autistic and part of an international criminal gang at 17, it's not inconceivable that he's never been socialized with a sense of right and wrong that meshes with society. Fix that and he's not a threat but I don't think the best shrinks in the world could give you a definitive timeline that a prison sentence would impose. Best case this is what the sentence is to cover, though reality will probably be closer to a life sentence.

  8. Agammamon   2 years ago

    >But…what exactly is the harm that has been alleged? In fairness, Kurtaj not only hacked firms like Rockstar and BT/EE but he also blackmailed the companies, asking the latter for $4 million (which was not paid).

    Uh . . . ?

    Are you *stupid* Lancaster?

    >But it would be difficult to make the case that Rockstar was irreparably harmed by the unauthorized disclosure

    You don't have to be irrepairably harmed in order for a violent child with mental health issues and a proven track record of criminality to need to be hospitalized for the safety of the community.

    1. A Thinking Mind   2 years ago

      Yeah, this is one of the worst bleeding-heart appeals to sympathy I've read in a while, lacking even the most basic alternative measures. "He shouldn't spend the rest of his life in an institution."

      Okay, tell us what your remedy is, Lancaster. Tell us what's appropriate. Tell us how society needs to respond to unchecked criminality.

      1. mad.casual   2 years ago

        Yeah, this is one of the worst bleeding-heart appeals to sympathy I’ve read in a while,

        To be fair, Reason would defend a 10-yr.-old who shot their own mother in the head, over a Christmas present, from being locked away for life if they could find *another* one.

  9. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   2 years ago

    .

    But…what exactly is the harm that has been alleged?

    That sentence most likely was generated by an AI chatbot.

    An antisocial, disaffected, on-the-spectrum AI chatbot.

    1. InsaneTrollLogic   2 years ago

      Speaking for yourself there, Artie?

      1. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   2 years ago

        For whom else would I be speaking?

        1. InsaneTrollLogic   2 years ago

          Then you admit all of your stuff is written by a chatbot?

          1. Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland   2 years ago

            No. I acknowledged that I speak for myself, you autistic misfit.

            1. InsaneTrollLogic   2 years ago

              Of course, an AI chatbot would lie about being an AI chatbot.

              1. JoeB   2 years ago

                Hey, at least he didn't call you a clinger!

                1. InsaneTrollLogic   2 years ago

                  Well, at least I got that going for me.

  10. Agammamon   2 years ago

    >"said that there were real victims and real harm caused from his other multiple hacks on individuals and the companies he attacked with Lapsus$."

    >Perhaps so. But it's worth asking if Kurtaj's crimes are worth potentially spending the rest of his life in custody, especially when the jury that condemned him was not even asked to consider whether he possessed criminal intent.

    Brother, the kid's *not going to jail*. He has a serious mental health problem. Intent has nothing to do with it - he can't help himself. As such, he's a danger to the rest of us and its not like he's going to move to Mars and not be able to lash out again.

    1. A Thinking Mind   2 years ago

      I question the validity of the so-called mental health problem, at this point. Deciding to hack into a financial institution, a broadband provider, and a mobile service provider, collecting customer data, and then blackmailing the company to pay you off if you don't release the data, that all seems pretty calculated. Clearly he had to understand the IDEA of consequences, since his whole crime is predicated on causing consequences if he doesn't get what he wants.

      If he was just a Matthew Broderick, hacking into RockStar because he really likes video games, that just doesn't seem too sinister. That's only what he did AFTER he was in custody, though. Before that he's hacking banks, Uber, and cell phone companies.

      1. mad.casual   2 years ago

        I don't normally go for this defense but, in this case, I could be persuaded that he was (e.g.) told to ask for $4M in exchange for not leaking the footage.

        Maybe more appropriately stated that Joe Lancaster is enough of a shithead puppet and I'm otherwise disinterested in the dire nature of Kurtaj's fate to care much beyond Joe's shittiness.

      2. Ben of Houston   2 years ago

        While I generally would agree with you, I'm not going to second guess the jury based on such a transparently biased and incomplete account. It also depends how serious the threat was (I can see a toddler making such a demand as a joke after watching Austin Powers) and many other facts that we simply don't have.

        Of course, if the Crown wants to put him in a mental institution so it's easier for MI5 to ferret him out to work for them, that's their decision.

  11. Agammamon   2 years ago

    Reason, stop accepting articles on computers, IP, security, and internet culture from people who don't understand computers, IP, security, and internet culture.

  12. A Thinking Mind   2 years ago

    By the way, he released video game footage that was shortly set to be released. Okay, hardly a big crime. But what else is he alleged have to have hacked?

    "Arion Kurtaj, 18, is said to have targeted Revolut and Uber in September 2022, accessing around 5,000 Revolut customers' information and causing nearly $3 million of damage to Uber."

    A financial institution, with lots of customer information, and also Uber, causing them some amount of financial damage. Oh, and a mobile phone company and a major broadband provider. Probably lots of customer data in there. All of them blackmailed, it seems.

    Leading with the idea that he hacked a video game company to leak video game footage makes him sound much more innocent and child-like, doesn't it? Why do I have to find that from other sources, why isn't it in this article? Why are you pushing a narrative instead of respecting the intelligence of your readers and giving them a balanced view?

    1. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   2 years ago

      Because Joe didn't want to upset the narrative.

  13. R Mac   2 years ago

    “But…what exactly is the harm that has been alleged? In fairness, Kurtaj not only hacked firms like Rockstar and BT/EE but he also blackmailed the companies, asking the latter for $4 million (which was not paid).”

    Ummmm….

    1. A Thinking Mind   2 years ago

      This is the biggest clown story I've seen on Reason in a long-ass time. It's almost worth putting up there with the "Race was invented in Virginia" guy.

      1. Ben of Houston   2 years ago

        Let's not forget the "state executing a guy who didn't shoot anyone" when the guy was the lookout for a group of armed robbers and directed them that the security guard was coming, literally giving the order for the murder.

        Sometimes you can't make this stuff up.

  14. JeremyR   2 years ago

    I'm surprised he hasn't been hired by an intelligence agency.

    But putting aside the whole blackmail angle, stuff like this can affect the stock price of a company.

    1. A Thinking Mind   2 years ago

      He hacked into a bank. I think there's a bit more at stake here than just stock prices. Funny how he left the "hacked into a bank" part of this story out and made it seem like this is about video games.

    2. damikesc   2 years ago

      I'm shocked Rockstar hasn't tried to hire him.

      Sony hired the guy who jailbroke the PS3, if memory serves.

  15. Longtobefree   2 years ago

    I wonder if the $5 million number might be like the "street value" number drug cops put out.

    1. A Thinking Mind   2 years ago

      He also, allegedly, leaked the game's source code, which is probably a bigger deal than some gameplay footage that was set to be debuted pretty soon anyway. Oddly enough, Lancaster seems to have missed that detail.

      1. mad.casual   2 years ago

        [tilts hand]

        The fact that he was involved in a telco and an otherwise service tech company is bigger news IMO.

        Especially for GTA VI, much of the product is the name/brand recognition. Code snippets aren't going to do anyone much good outside the game, it's not like they built a whole new physics/game engine from the ground up, and it's not like somebody was trying to choose between GTA VI and Starfield or BG3 until they heard some code got swiped from Rockstar (and maybe/maybe not used in BG3).

        1. A Thinking Mind   2 years ago

          Specifically talking about the alleged damages against Rockstar, the source code for their game is more valuable than releasing game play footage. It's something they do have a vested property right in controlling, and there are foreseeable harms that can come from having it leaked-including, yes, someone reproducing the game and giving it away so they can't sell it.

          I doubt they suffered $5 million in damages from leaked footage that they were planning to release soon anyway. Preventing the theft of their IP, perhaps a bit more damaging.

          1. mad.casual   2 years ago

            You're distorting IP beyond all proportions like a ridiculous ideologue.

            Just because McDs uses secret sauce, Rockstar uses a gravitational constant in their code, or someone uses NN, does not inherently mean that someone discovering that the secret sauce is thousand island dressing and telling everyone, sharing the gravitational constant, or sharing an untrained neural network with other people is inherently a damaging proposition. Rather specifically in a democracy operated by the taxpayers under the presumption of innocence, the opposite. If he stole the code and every other major game studio told him to fuck off with his stolen goods, you and Rockstar can fuck off with your "He automatically did eleventy-trajillion dollars worth of damages by getting eyeprints on our code!" bullshit.

            If the engine (or even just the piece or whatever he stole) is worth $5M, where are the reciepts? Who was willing to pay $5M for what was possibly junk and, equally possibly, signed and trademarked stolen goods that they knew they were buying from a competitor that they couldn't possibly market as such to recoup their losses?

            1. JoeB   2 years ago

              Agree that the $5 million number is horseshit. He's a criminal, but indefinite detention is cruel and unusual. Too bad he's a Brit, so he's SOL.

  16. Longtobefree   2 years ago

    "Kurtaj managed to hack into Rockstar using only his cell phone, a hotel TV, and an Amazon Firestick."

    At first that sounds impressive, but a high end cell phone is a very sophisticated computer able to summon all the expertise on the web, and an Amazon firestick is not tinker toy.

  17. JesseAz   2 years ago

    Another fine example of reason intentionally leaving out relevant information to push preconceived narratives.

  18. InsaneTrollLogic   2 years ago

    I'm impressed with the hacking skills. Can we hire him to locate and expose the Epstein client list?

    1. Eeyore   2 years ago

      Won't make any money, but your new "friends" might help you commit suicide.

  19. John F. Carr   2 years ago

    This strikes me as a routine "not guilty by reason of insanity" verdict. If you have mental problems that prevent you from obeying the law you can be locked up until you are mentally well again.

  20. Timmy000   2 years ago

    Holy Jack Teixeira Batman, what is this criminal intent stuff all about? And just where is Jack Teixeira and how long has he been awaiting trial?

    I still want to know more details about this blurb from the story "The outlet further reported that "Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage."; not to mention the mad skills needed do the hack " Even though he was in police custody at a Travelodge and his laptop had been confiscated, Kurtaj managed to hack into Rockstar using only his cell phone, a hotel TV, and an Amazon Firestick." Just what kind of custody was he in?

  21. CE   2 years ago

    Rockstar Games should have paid her a million dollar bonus, for exposing their security weakness, and building customer anticipation.

  22. Muchos   2 years ago

    This is a scary path and the average mentality only confirms so. The issue here isn't what he did, its the cost of what he did. People who murder are getting 10-20 years max. Since when did the value of something overtake the value of life? This is the slippery slope so many aren’t even aware exists. Ultimately thats what they want the masses to believe. Nothing should coat more than a human life. But please just devalue yourself. It just sucks because im condemned by your idiocy .

    1. Ben of Houston   2 years ago

      He was remanded to a mental hospital. Here's the thing about being declared crazy instead of guilty. You get out when the doctor says that you are no longer a threat to yourself or others. This could be tomorrow. It could be never. Because it's not punishment. It's treatment, and if you aren't safe to let out, they will keep you there.

      This was a deliberately misleading headline.

  23. NOYB2   2 years ago

    He wasn't "sentenced to life", he was given an "indefinite order" to undergo psychiatric treatment because he got out of the trial by being declared "mentally incompetent".

    Either he could do the time for hacking and blackmail, or could be declared unfit to stand trial and enter the mental health system.

    What's the problem?

  24. AT   2 years ago

    But…what exactly is the harm that has been alleged?

    Theft, blackmail, and unlawful distribution of private property.

    Imagine some autistic kid broke into your house, stole a bunch of your property, tried to blackmail you for its return, and then dumped it somewhere for anyone to grab. What's the harm, right?

    the BBC's Eric Alt wrote that the franchise's sixth installment "may not only succeed – but blow its predecessor's revenue out of the water."

    Is that kinda like, "BLM rioting/looting/arson is harmless because businesses have insurance?"

    Starting to think that Reason writers and this hacker kid have something in common.

    On the spectrum.

  25. Incredulous   2 years ago (edited)

    I have no sympathy. This kid is a total menace to society. He was already arrested for one crime and then committed another serious crime. He’s blackmailing people for millions of dollars. What’s he going to do next? And his supposed autism is completely irrelevant. He appears to be higher functioning than most of humanity and is already a habitual criminal.

  26. NotForNoReason   2 years ago

    Ah yes.. The only thing the western governments will lock anyone up for or generally give a shit. Big business.. fuck with $$$ interests and they will care... suddenly.

    The CR system needs to be burned to the ground world wide and, eventually, rebuilt as it was originally intended. As a short term temp protection, solely to ensure creators get to make some money off of it.. In order to incentivize the creation of more works only.. not in the protection of some kind of nebulous concept of "ownership" to a work. let alone the right to control all aspects of it. (The very idea of a partial CR violation is ridiculous.. as is the idea that parts or information about a work count as such either.)

  27. BrianMcDaniel   2 years ago

    I noticed that many players are facing the problem of how to earn gold in WoW Classic, yes it can be challenging, but boosting gaming offers a solution. Their boosting services include gold farming, providing a shortcut to financial success. Explore Leprestore to accumulate gold effectively and enjoy a more prosperous WoW Classic or other games.

  28. MilikusFlorium   2 years ago

    If someone has such skills, it's better to get into game development, it's legal and profitable, so I have no idea why he would get into hacking instead. There are many great companies like https://www.arrible.com/ with top-tier game development specialists, so it's worth considering something like that instead.

  29. Olman Grand   1 year ago

    Anticipation for Grand Theft Auto 6 is certainly high. While waiting for its release, keeping an eye on promotional offers through special sites might give you a head start to obtain the game at a discount, or related merchandise. While the Clash.gg codes website focuses more on CS:GO, the gaming community often shares news and promo codes during big game launches .

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