- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
The 18-year-old Lapsus$ hacker who played a critical role in leaking Grand Theft Auto VI footage has been sentenced to life inside a hospital prison, according to a report from the BBC. A British judge ruled on Thursday that Arion Kurtaj is a high risk to the public because he still wants to commit cybercrimes.
In August, a London jury found that Kurtaj carried out cyberattacks against GTA VI developer Rockstar Games and other companies, including Uber and Nvidia. However, since Kurtaj has autism and was deemed unfit to stand trial, the jury was asked to determine whether he committed the acts in question, not whether he did so with criminal intent.
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Life for this seems absolutely insane.
I don’t think the kid will actually serve it out in prison though. The primary issue here seems to be that the kid is actively saying they will commit more crimes. No matter the crime, you can’t really give a light sentence to someone telling you, in a court of law, that they will do it again.
The ideal would be that they rehabilitate him until he’s able to be safely released with no fear of repeat offense, or at the very least, until the kid is smart enough to lie.
It’s not prison, it’s some sort of prison hospital. But still, life is the exact opposite end of the spectrum compared to a light sentence. Like you said, rehabilitation should be the goal, and imposing life sentences on 18 year olds is not how you make that happen.
He only got a life sentence because he made corporations look bad IMO. Not because of him saying he’d do it again.
No matter the crime, you can’t really give a light sentence to someone telling you, in a court of law, that they will do it again.
Dude’s unfit to stand trial.
He’s unfit to stand trial, but he’s not unfit enough to continue to commit the crimes he’s been committing.
Again, just because nobody else seems to be bringing it up, *he was already out on bail for cybercrimes when he hacked Rockstar. *
Dude’s unfit to be loose in society. Doesn’t leave a lot of options.
I dunno, he’s seem to do pretty good things thus far.
But that’s just my independent viewpoint.
I couldn’t care less about the stuff he’s breaking (so far at least), it’s moreso the breaking part that concerns me. Like, this doesn’t sound like someone following a deeply held belief and breaking property as a way to fight corporations. It’s someone having a temper tantrum.
Let’s also remember he hacked Rockstar while out on bail for hacking other companies. He was already given a chance, and he committed another fucking crime.
You might try reading the article you posted then, because it says very plainly:
He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.
A danger of commiting cyber crimes. You forgot that part. This could be solved with a probation officer and a restriction on technology use. Instead, he’s in a mental hospital. This is ridiculous and a way to weaponize his disability as a warning to others.
Considering he hacked Rockstar because they put him in a hotel room with a land line phone and an Amazon Firestick while in custody for hacking, I’d say he has a serious mental issue here.
Yeah he’s a fucking genius.
I think whoever left him alone with an Internet connection has the serious mental issue.
They did strip him of stuff, he just found the Fire Stick and bought the phone - while on bail for other cybercrimes. The point is he’s determined to commit crimes. You can’t let someone out free in society like this. Meeting up with a probation officer every now and then isn’t good enough for this kind of person. It’s a compulsion. He can’t even mentally stand trial right now.
There are absolutely ways to do so. Hackers are kept in the public under those conditions all the time. This is a modern lynching to serve as an example.
Yes… It’s the same sentence criminally insane murderers get.
People pleading insanity and thinking ‘they get away with it’, has always made me laugh. You might get probation in 20 years but in an asylum, you have no sentence it’s just a matter of if the doctors ever agree to release you.
During Thursday’s hearing, the court heard Kurtaj “had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage,” the BBC reports. A mental health assessment also found that Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.” He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.
Sounds like dude has some stuff to work out mentally
He has autism. It affects the brain in very specific ways for each individual, but in general Executive function is the first thing to go when in stressful situations. You know, emotional regulation and self control? And I also guarantee that the cops and guards were treating him like shit. They LOVE picking on disabled people. I have no doubt most of the charges and incidents were exacerbated by the people in charge.
The dude committed crimes while on bail. Autism doesn’t excuse that, and even if it did, it’s still a problem that needs to be dealt with.
A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated.”
The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack.
Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.
Nothing is being trumped up, here. The kid is just brazen about this.
Ah so he’s a Lemmy user.
I get that, have it as well. Been arrested for it as well.
This kid wasn’t arrested for having autism. It was for brazenly commiting crimes, and even when he was released on bail, he committed even more crimes in police protection.
The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack.
Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.
This is not some poor autistic kid that’s getting picked on by cops, he’s a highly capable hacker expressing a explicit intent to continue to break the law and cause harm to both individuals and corporations.
Never said he was getting picked by cops on or arrested for having autism.
the court heard that the 17-year-old and Kurtaj used stolen SIM details from five victims to steal a total of nearly £100,000 from their cryptocurrency accounts which were secured by their compromised mobile phone SIM identities.
He is a hacker and a thief that has a lot of work to do psychologically
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Umm… look the fuck around? All cops are bastards. Mental health facilities aren’t better. I was a kid in a couple, and worked at one myself. There are good staff, yeah, but there’s also a 99% fucking chance that every kid will encounter a bad one. And there’s a lot of bad ones. If youre lucky theyre lazy and just neglect you. Others have little patience and are likely to yell and chastise during an incident. They’ll do vindictive little things to mentally ill children because theyve had to write an incident report. They’ll taunt and goad kids into being aggressive. They’ll ABSOLUTELY make all kinds of disparaging comments about the kids.
I have seen it all, far too often. Its absolutely rampant.
So zero evidence the cops and guards in this case did anything wrong. Thanks for being honest about lying =)
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Going to be honest, I think you need to go back to reddit.
None of what you say seems to be in good faith whereas the person you’re replying to is at least giving personal experiences from both being a kid in that system and having worked in it as an adult.
Downvote haraas and insult me all you want, won’t change the fact that you aren’t contributing to a better community or dialogue.
I think you need to go back to reddit.
Or else what? You’ll do something to me? You’ll downvote me?
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Uh oh, you just broke Rule 1 That wasn’t very civil of you.
Observing fact is civil behavior.
Don’t be upset =)
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Chill man. Will do you some good.
You’re literally saying it’s okay they put this kid away for life because he hacked Grand theft Auto and you’re telling me to chill?
Did you read the article?
Well, sure, but does that mean he should get a life sentence?
No. But you also can’t say I’m going to go straight back to commitmenting the exact same crime asap
A mental health assessment also found that Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.”
If he’s unfit for trial doesn’t he wait until he can? That is beyond unjust on every which side unless he is that level of fucked up. What is life like in an NCR-type deal hospital for life?
Is it like a decent group home or where is he being sent to exactly?
It sounds like he is that level of fucked up. Getting violent and breaking shit and literally saying “I’ll fuckin do it again”.
And people are still going to play the game.
Worse, people will buy that game.
I mean… what is the alternative? He said he’s going to continue hacking once he’s free, so do you think 5 or 10 years in prison will do anything to deter him? It doesn’t sound like it at all.
edit: plenty of downvotes, but nobody is suggesting what should be done instead?
Not sure why this is down voted.
Besides being aggressive and destructive, he declared he will not stop doing crime.
This is not some “hero vs corporations” feel-good story as people seem to think here.
I dunno why people think social engineering has no victims and is harmless. It’s just not the case.
The use of “sentenced to life” here is one of the most blatant click/ragebait headlines I’ve seen in a while. And looking at the comments, people are eating it up.
He has not been sentenced to life. He’s in a hospital until deemed fit to release, because he’s destroying property, injuring people, and declaring a desire to return to crime.
Yeah, it’s funny when it’s Rockstar, less so when it’s your social media or bank. If he can’t bring himself to at least commit to saying he won’t do something illegal just to get through court, then his lack of self control speaks to someone who’s going to do some shit and wind up arrested again.
If the staff can get him to calm down enough to stand trial, he’s out.
Also, remember he was already put on bail once:
A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated.”
The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack.
Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.
The dude hacked Rockstar while in police custody for hacking other companies. They were transporting him and stopped for the night. They locked him inside a hotel room after clearing out anything that he could potentially use to hack. But they missed an Amazon Firestick in the back of the TV. Using that and his room phone, he hacked Rockstar, then when he was caught he told police he’ll do it again as soon as he’s released.
Yeah, the dude is compulsive. It’s an obsession for him.
But think of the talent…the potential
Yeah isn’t this the part of the movie where he gets recruited from jail by James Bond or something? That’s literally a plot point in at least one Mission Impossible movie, isn’t it? Lol
Or he could be one of those one episode villains
They won’t be able to stop him. He literally needs that cube they put magneto in.
This sounds like something out of a movie plot holy cow
Using that and his room phone
Did you read the article?
Kurtaj still managed to carry out an attack on Rockstar Games by using the room’s included Amazon Fire Stick and a “newly purchased smart phone, keyboard and mouse,” according to a separate BBC report.
Huh? I heard he bought it from a local store (he was unattended) along with a cell phone, not that it was already the the room?
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because he’s destroying property,
Hold on while I dig out the world’s smallest violin for the property of billionaire parasites.
For real, right? What a wank of a take 😵💫
Hold on… I have an even smaller violin - you know, for all the people who love licking the boots of billionaire parasites.
All that over-priced shoe polish must be really hard on your tongue.
Just to clarify, you know I’m agreeing with you right?
Shoot.
Sorry.
You can put away your second, very small violin now sir
All good. I guess “for real, right?” has an intonation everyone in the NYC area gets, but maybe others don’t know. I’ll be more careful.
Also, I’m stealing “overpriced shoe polish is bad for your tongue”. 😂
Don’t feel too bad. I didn’t pick up on it either
Not sure what “property” you are thinking of here?
Stop trying to introduce logic and reason into a pitchfork led witch hunt.
Thank you for this, my jaw literally dropped when I read the title
Thanks for the summary.
Although he stayed at a hotel under police protection during this time, Kurtaj still managed to carry out an attack on Rockstar Games by using the room’s included Amazon Fire Stick and a “newly purchased smart phone, keyboard and mouse
Lol. If this was in the plot of a movie, I would say that this is implausible.
Jesus. Don’t lock this guy up, give him a computer and point him at Russia.
“Russia wanted us to stop you from playing video games. Go teach them a lesson”
To be fair, that mobile phone is basically just a computer. I could my dayjob from a mobile phone too if I plugged it into dock with mouse, keyboard and a screen. Just a bit inconvenient
I use my phone that way at work but i use parsec to access my vm this way i dont have to carry a laptop
The part I don’t get that no-one has mentioned is that Rockstar stated in court that it cost them $5million to recover from the attack. What does that even mean? They spent $5mil on lawyers to recover the video footage? They spent that on upgrading security (which arguably should have been in place already if they could be hacked with a fire stick and a landline). Or have they been selling $5mil less of Shark Cards than they were expecting?
I think some of these evil corporations just throw up a number and expect people to believe they spent that kind of money.
I don’t even buy games at release anymore. I wait for a sale or GOTY edition. I wish people would stop pre-ordering and wait for YouTube reviews and Twitch streams.
I didn’t pre-order GTA V and watched it on Twitch. After about 2 weeks, went and bought it on PS3 with money I won from a football pool.
I’ve been around for this kind of thing. Similar to grants. When the money is flowing, management just goes around and earmarks various things on the budget sheets and asks the data folks for reports to back it up. Some of it could be true. Most of it is a stretch.
I usually buy a game on release if it’s good or if I trust the company – when I heard Armored Core 6 came out, I made a note to go buy it because FromSoft is amazing. And once again, they didn’t miss.
That said, if they put out a game with a bunch of microtransactions, I’d probably think twice. Respect for a developer takes time to build but is easily broken.
Which is why it’s unfortunate to say that people should do the same for Bathesda, it being a Microsoft company now. Doesn’t hurt to wait a few weeks; Who knows, you may even run into a ‘buff female’ or something who could buy the game for you. (: smile
Yeah Bethesda has definitely fallen into the “do not preorder or buy on release” category. I was already rather sour on them after Fallout 4 got rid of my favorite parts of 3 and NV. Starfield just confirms it.
First off: it’s a hospital until he’s fit to stand trial. Same for the crazy serial killers who can’t comprehend that what they do is wrong.
Second: the dude is autistic and violent without his connection to the internet. He need professional help.
Third: respect where it is due, he was already banned from having a computer, hacked rockstar with a phone and a fire tv stick
The NSA is about to buy him his freedom…
violent
he was violent while in custody. The article doesn’t say anything about any other violence. I think its fair that he was violent towards the people who were violating his rights
Jesus, man. He hacked Rockstar with a fire stick and a phone, lol. Put this kid to work hacking enemy governments. Why waste that talent?
According to the article he was also found to be extremely violent while in custody, with several reports and issues. A lot of that is likely related to his Autism and should be noted. I also absolutely expect the reports are at least partially exaggerated in their wording.
That said: I do agree. Get the kid some therapy and coping skills and give him a nicely colored hat to choose from.
Sounds like they have Rick Sanchez is custody over there
Court mandated therapy would do wonders
If they are going to go that way, no one will ever know.
How could this 18 year old have hacked your government website while locked up in a hospital? Are you admitting your cyber security is that bad?
conversation ends
A lot of state sponsored hackers have at least the same skills with better behavior. Also, he’s too high profile now. If the govt needs to off an asset it’ll be news if he’s suddenly disappeared.
Wtf, life in prison because you made a corporation look bad?
Life in hospital because he publicly vowed to keep doing it while his trial was going on. That’s not a smart thing, that’s definitely not a sane thing. You apologize and move on to get out, you double down if you really like the food, white walls, and basic healthcare, or, you know, if you can’t stop yourself from saying so.
No, he did not get “life”.
He’s staying in a mental institute until released.
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Although he stayed at a hotel under police protection during this time, Kurtaj still managed to carry out an attack on Rockstar Games by using the room’s included Amazon Fire Stick and a “newly purchased smart phone, keyboard and mouse,” according to a separate BBC report. Kurtaj was arrested for the final time following the incident.
I say let him out, unconditionally. When you reach this mix of genius and shamelessness, you breach into the territory of art. Rockstar having to pay $5.000.000 in “damages” is a sacrifice I’m willing to have them make.
When you have a kid like this you fucking recruit them to work for the government and let him hack their enemies to his hearts content.
And you tell the public they’re in prison for life.
hahah fair point. Maybe we’ll never know
If North Korea collapses, then we have our answer.
Yeah, like what the fuck? He got Rockstar with a goddamn phone and a Firestick? Dude must be a genius.
Sounds like the origin story of a comic book character.
Not sure what’s hard about that.
If you can convince someone inside a company to give you the credentials, a phone and Firestick is more than enough.
People seem to assume he did some movie magic hack. People are generally the weakest factor for companies, I assume that’s what he “attacked”
“I’ll give you a phone and a fire stick for your user id and password”
Life? That’s bonkers. For leaking GTA crap? Egad.
Guess a billion dollar company bought the legal system…
Rockstar: ‘Lock him up and throw away the key. Also, play our game and go shoot some civilians, cops, and feds in a hacker terrorist bank heist online with friends!’
The use of “for life” here is extremely misleading and rage baiting. People around here shit on the media all the time, but fall for this clickbait hook line and sinker.
He’s not been imprisoned “for life”. He’s been put in a hospital until deemed fit for release or to stand trial. Because he’s literally destroying shit and hurting people/himself.
During Thursday’s hearing, the court heard Kurtaj “had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage,” the BBC reports. A mental health assessment also found that Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.”
And yeah, we all like cybercrime around here when the kid does it to Rockstar, but he can just as easily do more damaging things to regular people, and that’s a serious concern. If he can’t control himself long enough to get through a trial, then there’s no reason to assume he won’t do more shit.
Read the article.
Hacking spree one Jurors heard that the unnamed teenager started hacking with Kurtaj in July 2021 having met online. Kurtaj aided by Lapsus$ associates, hacked the servers and data files of telecoms company BT and EE, the mobile operator, before demanding a $4m (£3.1m) ransom on 1 August 2021.
Hacking spree two That did not deter the duo who continued hacking with Lapsus$ and successfully breached Nvidia, a Silicon Valley tech giant that makes chips for artificial intelligence chatbots, in February 2022. They stole and leaked sensitive and valuable data and demanded a ransom payment to stop them releasing more.
Hacking spree three Prosecutors say he was “caught red handed” when City of London Police searched his hotel room. In a “flagrant disregard for his bail conditions”, jurors were told that police found an Amazon Fire Stick in his hotel TV allowing him to connect to cloud computing services with a newly purchased smart phone, keyboard and mouse.
That’s a new description of Nvidia
That’s what Jensen calls it
“[Jensen] sent out an email on Friday evening saying everything is going to deep learning, and that we were no longer a graphics company. By Monday morning, we were an AI company. Literally, it was that fast.”
Is this real life or did I not wake up?
Imagine what the MI6 or CIA could make out of him. He hacked Rockstar using a firestick, imagine what he could do when given the right tools. This is a terrible waste of skill.
Yeah but it makes mega corporations look like the complete idiots that they actually are…the rich can’t have their stupidity on clear display like that so they need to punish whoever.
This isn’t about their shitty game anymore, they want to attempt to stop other smart individuals from again showing the world that this giant companies shouldn’t exist and how utterly pathetic they are when it comes to security
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We disagree on where his skills would have been wasted.
He was going in the right direction. I’d have loved to see what he could have inflicted on capital markets and banking systems.
A Fire Stick is just a small computer, hacking with a computer is normal.
Ya it’s not like he was using the tiny remote and managed to hack extra capabilities into the firestick like that headline made it sound. He bought a Bluetooth keyboard and used a preexisting app to connect to his server. The server is the thing he actually used to do the hacking.
What the FUCK?!
this is fucking alarming.
“This kid is super smart and managed to get somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be. The people protecting that place have billions of dollars, so this kid must suffer. What he didn’t was kind of illegal but no one got hurt except the billionaires who want him to suffer. Well, they didn’t measurably get hurt, they just are upset about it. What do you say? Life in the Looney bin?”
I don’t think threatening to release customer information is a victimless crime.
Life in prison to protect corporate/government profits and secrets.
Humanity makes being a misanthrope mighty appealing.
The article has a terrible, misleading, clickbait headline. It says in the article itself:
He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.
So, he’s not being sentenced to life in prison. He was deemed to be unfit to stand trial for psychiatric reasons and so he’s being sentenced to an indefinite prison sentence, up to and including life, until his doctors deem him no longer a threat to society. Totally reasonable, given the defendant is severely autistic, was violent, and kept stating his clear intent to continue committing cybercrimes if released.
Here’s a better source with more information. He is a career criminal already who has hacked a lot more than just Rockstar. I’m not saying that a fucking life sentence is justified, but the Verge isn’t doing its due diligence in reporting all the facts on why they gave him such a drastic sentence. The fact that he has already done a lot of damage and says that he will do so again isn’t great for him.
not a life sentance
So this was the kid that committed the cybercrime using a fire stick while out on bail due to other cybercrime. And in this process he shows no remorse to stop doing cyber crime. And the doctors of this lifetime prison hospital get discretion on when to release him if he shows remorse? Administrative medical prison sentencing is usually fucked up and unfair, but it sounds like this kid has a path forward to eventually get released.
Is he gonna be able to play the game in the hospital?
