Rockstar Games, the maker of the popular Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series, faced a major security breach last year when an 18-year-old hacker named Arion Kurtaj leaked several clips from the unreleased GTA 6 game.
The clips, which showed raw gameplay footage from the development version of the game, went viral on the internet and sparked a massive investigation by the gaming company. The clips revealed many details about the upcoming game, which Rockstar Games later confirmed to have been in development for a long time.
However, the most shocking part of the hack was not the hacker’s age or identity, but the method he used to access the Rockstar Games servers. Arion Kurtaj used nothing but an Amazon Fire Stick, a cloud computing service, and a smartphone with a mouse and keyboard to pull off one of the biggest hacks in gaming history.
Arion Kurtaj was arrested and charged with multiple offenses under the UK’s Computer Misuse Act, including blackmail and fraud.
Arion Kurtaj was not a lone wolf hacker, but a member of a notorious hacker group called Lapsus$, which was also responsible for data breaches of other big companies like Uber and Nvidia.
The group, based in the UK, specialized in hacking into secure servers of large corporations and demanding ransomware for their data. The group’s first known hack was in 2021 when they hacked into BT and EE’s servers and stole user data.
Arion Kurtaj was involved in this hack along with another minor associate, and they demanded a ransom of $4 million from the companies. They were both arrested and released under investigation, but they did not stop their hacking spree. In February 2022, they hacked into Nvidia’s servers and blackmailed the company for more money.
Arion Kurtaj was arrested again in March 2022 for his involvement in the Nvidia hack. He was found guilty of tricking and harassing Nvidia employees online to gain access to their servers. He was also diagnosed with autism at the time of his trial, which made him unfit for trial. He was placed in a Travelodge hotel in Bicester, England to protect him from bullying, and he was banned from using the internet by UK law enforcement.
However, this did not stop him from hacking into Rockstar Games’ servers using an Amazon Fire Stick that he had smuggled into his hotel room. He used the Fire Stick to connect to a cloud computing service that allowed him to bypass the internet ban and access Rockstar Games’ servers.
He then downloaded and leaked several old footage of GTA 6 that were still in development. He was caught with the Fire Stick and the data he had stolen from Rockstar Games and was taken into custody again.
Arion Kurtaj’s associate, who was also autistic and a minor, was also arrested and charged for his role in the hacks. However, his details were not revealed by law enforcement due to his age and condition. He is currently on bail while Arion Kurtaj is still in custody.
The future of both hackers is uncertain, but they have caused a lot of damage to Rockstar Games and other companies they have hacked. Rockstar Games has since taken extra security measures to prevent similar hacks in the future.
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