Last year, we reported on a hack perpetrated vs Rockstar Games, leading to the greatest leak the video game industry has seen in its history. Today, we report on a strange and sobering twist to this story.
The suspect in the case, 19 year old Arion Kurtaj, has been determined by psychiatrists as not fit to stand trial. As reported by Reuters, the jury will no longer be deliberating if Kurtaj is guilty or not guilty, but on whether he committed the acts of hacking instead.
Kurtaj engaged in a sensational hacking spree, alongside another hacker, who was also a member of hacking group Lapsus$. It started with the two blackmailing UK telecommunication companies BT and EE. When they were investigated by the London police, they hacked the police next.
Kurtaj then went on his own, first targeting Revolut, a fintech firm, and Uber, and finally going after Rockstar Games. At the time of his arrest, the London police also confirmed that this was the same hacker who tried to blackmail Microsoft and Nvidia after hacking them, a few months earlier.
As you may have guessed, Kurtaj was still 16 or 17 when he started participating in these hacks with Lapsus$. This was why news outlets chose not to share his full name until he reached 18.
Kurtaj was brought to a specialist youth court after his arrest, where he pled not guilty. As we reported at the time, the authorities seemed to still be occupied with investigating the hacker group Lapsus$, to confirm if other hackers were involved.
As you may imagine, there are many more aspects of this case that the police have chosen not to make public. These seem to be intended to protect Arion Kurtaj, but that does leave us only able to speculate on what his particular circumstances are.
We also don’t know the extent to which Rockstar Games is involved in this litigation, though we do know other larger companies, like Uber and Microsoft, have some sort of involvement in this case.
If you may remember, Rockstar Games publicly confirmed that the leak was real. They clarified that the game that fans saw was very much still a work in progress, and would in no way indicate its final state. They also claimed that the hack would not adversely affect development.
While we can only wait on the UK government to make disclosures on this case as they see fit, Rockstar Games could certainly reassure their fans if they gave us just a little tease to confirm that Grand Theft Auto 6 is well underway.
