An 18-year-old who hacked Rockstar and leaked footage of Grand Theft Auto 6 has been placed in a secure hospital by a British judge.
Arion Kurtaj, who suffers from acute autism, was convicted of being a member of the international hacking group Lapsus$, which also carried out attacks on tech companies including Uber, Nvidia and EE.
Along with a 17-year-old male, who can’t be identified, he was found guilty of serious computer misuse, blackmail and fraud following a seven-week criminal trial, Bloomberg reports.
Judge Patricia Lees said Kurtaj remained fixated with hacking and posed “a high risk of serious harm to the public through skill in gaining unfettered access to computers.”
Kurtaj will stay at a secure hospital facility until such time that a mental health tribunal decides he no longer poses a danger to others.
The unnamed 17-year-old was sentenced to a youth rehabilitation order with an 18 month supervision requirement.
Last September, hackers published an hour of GTA 6 development footage online, giving players their first look at the sequel to one of the best-selling games of all-time.
Rockstar released the first official trailer for the game this month, which racked up over 90 million views in just 24 hours.
It confirmed that the game will partly take place in Vice City – a fictional Miami – and star a pair of protagonists, one of whom, in a first for the series, is a women.
Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2025.
Laura Adams is a tech enthusiast residing in the UK. Her articles cover the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of technology.
