GAMING: GTA VI hacker given indefinite hospital order

The hacker behind the ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ (‘GTA VI’) leaks has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.

Arion Kurtaj, 18, was a member of the international hacker group Lapsus$, and preyed on Rockstar Games, the developer behind the ‘GTA’ series, and released a variety of details about the project, including a collection of over 90 images, videos and code for the title.

The teen, who is autistic, was sent to a secure hospital for life, where he and another 17-year-old Lalsus$ hacker, who cannot be named, will also serve an 18-month-long Youth Rehabilitation Order, with an “intense supervision and a ban on using VPNs [Virtual Private Networks] online”.

The leak, which Rockstar claimed cost them $5 million in damages, was not Arion’s first offensive, as he had also attacked Uber Nvidia, BT and EE, for which he was found guilty for after a mental health assessment deemed that he “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated.”

Despite having his computer confiscated, the teen hacked into Rockstar Games using an Amazon Firestick in a Travelodge hotel.

Using their internal Slack messaging system, he wrote: "If Rockstar does not contact me on Telegram within 24 hours I will start releasing the source code".