The suspect arrested for the Grand Theft Auto 6 hack has pled not guilty in a specialist youth court in the UK.
City of London detective inspector Michael O’Sullivan gave this statement to the press:
“The 17-year-old who appeared at Highbury Corner Youth Court on 24th September has pleaded guilty to breaching his bail conditions and not guilty to computer misuse.
The teenager has been remanded to a youth detention centre.”
As we had reported last week, the teen suspect was detained by the London police last week, dousing cold water on earlier rumors that the hacker had started negotiations or was looking to negotiate with Rockstar Games.
This hacker is believed to be a member of notorious hacking group LAPSUS$, whose members have documented hacks on companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Nvidia, Samsung, Ubisoft, and Activision Blizzard. It is known that this particular hacker was already arrested last year for being suspected of being part of these leaks, and even boasted about it online.
A prior report also indicated that Uber believes the same hacker or hackers who leaked Grand Theft Auto 6 also hacked and compromised their security. While the suspect and their arrest occurred in London, Uber got both the FBI and the US Department of Justice involved in their investigation into the matter.
As reported by Matthew Keys, the search for the hacker ended up also involving the National Cyber Crime Unit of the London police. These organizations zeroed in on the suspect, given his past history of hacking, and found him living in his mother’s house.
Based on their investigations, the teen was charged with two counts of breach of bail conditions, and two counts of computer misuse.
Now, while the framing of this story makes it appear like there was only one hacker involved, it is entirely possible that other hackers who were members of LAPSUS$ were involved to the same degree or more. If investigation to the hacks at Rockstar Games and Uber are still ongoing, the authorities are still at a point where they have to withold information to the public so that those aforementioned investigations will not be compromised.
Rockstar has yet to chime in on the fact that the hacker has been identified, brought to court, or has entered his plea. Just as a reminder, the company released a statement indicating that the incident has not affected development on the game, nor had the hack affected any of their live services.
While Rockstar is not under any legal obligation to make any statements around this time, fans as well as industry observers will be interested in information relating to how the hack happened under the company’s watch, and what actions they intend to do to keep their data secure in the future. We hope they bring further light to this situation on their end at the proper time.
Source: Eurogamer
