Technology

Lapsus$ hacker who targeted Uber and Grand Theft Auto sentenced to indefinite hospital detention

0
Please log in or register to do it.
Lapsus$ hacker who targeted Uber and Grand Theft Auto sentenced to indefinite hospital detention


A teenage member of the Lapsus$ hacking group has been sentenced to indefinite detention in hospital for hacking Uber and fintech firm Revolut, and for blackmailing the developers of best-selling video game Grand Theft Auto.

Arion Kurtaj, 18, embarked on a solo cybercrime spree in September 2022 while on police bail for earlier offences.

He targeted Revolut, accessing around 5,000 Revolut customers’ information, and then Uber two days later, causing nearly $US3 million ($4.4 million) of damage to the ride-sharing company, prosecutors said.

Kurtaj then hacked Rockstar Games and threatened to release the source code for the company’s planned Grand Theft Auto sequel in a Slack message to all Rockstar staff.

Jurors at London’s Southwark Crown Court were played clips of the latest upcoming instalment of Grand Theft Auto, which Kurtaj had hacked and uploaded to an online gaming forum.

Kurtaj, who has autism, was assessed by psychiatrists as not fit to stand trial, so the jury was asked to find whether he had committed the acts rather than deliver a verdict of guilty.

He had previously hacked and blackmailed Britain’s biggest broadband provider BT Group and mobile operator EE in 2021, demanding a $US4 million ransom.

Kurtaj also hacked chipmaker Nvidia in February 2022, taking around one terabyte of data, releasing about 80 gigabytes and threatening to publish the rest.

‘Key players’

Kurtaj and a 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons and whose case was heard alongside Kurtaj’s, were “key players” in Lapsus$, prosecutors said.

A jury in August found Kurtaj committed 12 offences, including three counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud and six charges under the Computer Misuse Act.



Source link

Singapore: 5th best city for expats who favour SG’s “global” approach and future investments
4 Singapore Stocks That Conducted Acquisitions to Grow Their Business