A teenager named Arion Kurtaj got himself in trouble by hacking into a major video game company and leaking sneak peeks of their upcoming game, Grand Theft Auto 6. This incident occurred while he was under police protection at a Travelodge hotel. Despite having his laptop confiscated for his involvement with the cyber gang Lapsus$, Kurtaj managed to obtain 90 unreleased clips of GTA 6 from Rockstar Games using a hotel TV and an Amazon Fire Stick. Pretty sneaky, right? But that's not all – he also hacked some big companies like Uber, Nvidia, and broadband provider BT Group, and even demanded a $4 million ransom from them. Because of all this, he's been sent to a hospital for an indefinite time.
Arion Kurtaj's condition was a significant factor in the case, as he was assessed by psychiatrists as not fit to stand trial due to his autism. Despite this, he was found responsible for the hacking acts, and it was highlighted that he continued to express intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.
The release of secret GTA 6 videos was just one part of a bunch of cyber-attacks on big game companies. People got worried about how safe game stuff is. Even though his lawyers said it didn't affect the game's sales too much, the court thought what Kurtaj did was still pretty bad. This whole thing shows how risky cybercrime can be, especially for young people using the internet.
In another similar situation, a 17-year-old who was also part of the same group as Arion was given a different type of punishment. The judge, Patricia Lees, made a point of saying how serious Kurtaj's crimes were and how he kept wanting to do more cybercrimes. The police also said that this shows how easily young people can get into trouble online.
