Teen GTA VI Hacker Sentenced To Indefinite Hospital Order (theverge.com) 77
Emma Roth reports via The Verge: 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. 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.
Kurtaj leaked 90 videos of GTA VI gameplay footage last September while out on bail for hacking Nvidia and British telecom provider BT / EE. 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. Another 17-year-old involved with Lapsus$ was handed an 18-month community sentence, called a Youth Rehabilitation Order, and a ban from using virtual private networks.
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. 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.
Kurtaj leaked 90 videos of GTA VI gameplay footage last September while out on bail for hacking Nvidia and British telecom provider BT / EE. 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. Another 17-year-old involved with Lapsus$ was handed an 18-month community sentence, called a Youth Rehabilitation Order, and a ban from using virtual private networks.
Job resume (Score:4, Interesting)
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Sounds like he should be given a job hacking Russia, China, and North Korea.
They probably have slightly better security than Rockstar Games. If the bugginess of their games is any indication, Rockstar probably had the videos on an open FTP server.
I was playing GTA V in a closed lobby (you can't play in public lobbies on PC because it's nothing but godmode cheaters) while I had the flu last week and it is still a massive bugfest. My Oppressor MKII randomly lost its insurance with the latest update. I had an auto shop delivery that wouldn't complete when I drove the car into the y
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what do you think he'll be doing in this "hospital prison"? that's just a nice headline to say that the kid is now on some secretive ops team.
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Reminds me of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Togusa investigates a hospital for kids that have developed "closed shell syndrome", a form of autism associated with cyberbrain malfunction. They're all whizkid hackers that can barely interact with the world around them. They spend all day coding IC for the Japanese government.
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If someone us super-bright, I absolutely guarantee they have autism. Autism is the increase in bandwidth in the brain.
Re: Job resume (Score:1)
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Except it doesn't, and you know this.
Re:Job resume (Score:5, Insightful)
Nah you don't want someone uncontrollable working for you.
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Are you suggesting Russian Cyber-Criminals are all hired because they are controllable?
Sure, you just put them in a fourth-floor office with an open window and leave it open at all times as a reminder of what country they live in.
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A very common symptom of people on the spectrum is something called "lock-on". This kid has a very particular obsession and there is little other than physical force that will keep him from pursuing it. If you tried to employ him to hack Russia, sat him at a computer, he would immediately go back to hacking video game companies without concern for the consequences of doing so.
Gameplay footage, really? (Score:2)
If I was going to risk getting in trouble by hacking a major game development company, I'd target something more potentially profitable than clips of people playing an unfinished video game, that in all likelihood looks just like the current installment of GTA but with slightly better graphics. Just sayin'.
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Rockstar is just the headline catcher for journalists here.
In reality, this guy has some serious issues if you actually followed the full story - violence, stalking, threatening behaviour etc and that all coupled with a mental disorder which makes him unable to determine right from wrong, meaning he has no moral or ethical boundaries to carry out these acts.
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To be fair this akin to someone leaking footage for Avatar 3, regardless of how one feels about it it's big big money on the line.
GTA IV in strictly business terms is what's known as a "spicy meatball"
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I'm just saying Rockstar hasn't changed the formula for their GTA games since GTA III. The map is bigger, the graphics get better, but the gameplay is still the same. You drive vehicles and do crime missions that involve some combination of driving from A to B, shooting some NPCs, sometimes retrieving some MacGuffin in the process, then driving from B back to A.
Really the only thing that will make or break the success of their next GTA game is if it will still feature a vehicle like the Oppressor MKII, be
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Fully agree 100% and I expect GTA6 to be more of the same because why would they change it?
Age irrelevant, behavior matters. (Score:1)
He must be stopped.
He will not stop of his own accord.
Confinement in prison for mental defectives is grossly inappropriate.
Custodial care away from his weapons of choice protects the public.
He had a life to choose different behaviors. He was given opportunities to reform and ignored them. I see no problem here since the value of one toxic vandal is nil.
InB4 but other people get away with stuff. Nail them, too.
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Life sentence for leaking some video game videos, not even the video game itself seems a bit too harsh.
No, custodial care for being an ongoing threat (Score:2)
If he chooses to be different or can, he can be released.
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What dystopic cyberpunk future did you come from?
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Then there was stalking, doxxing, sim swapping, theft of money and so on, I don't know if he did any swatting, its a crime I don't rule out that he did. He might be given infinite time in criminal hospital, but in reality he's going to be out in 20 to 40 years. By then, all his technical skills today are going to be outdated and not useful.
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Now it does make more sense
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The stalking, doxxing, etc was attributed to the gang, not to this person specifically.
Autistic people can be very sensitive to sensory input. The violence the judge mentioned was probably the response of an autistic person being physically retrained by police officers. Trained professionals would only put their hands on such a person as a last resort.
The more I think about this case the more I think this young man can be rehabilitated. The one characteristic I've seen in common with autistic people is
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This is in the BBC News.
"[...] The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage.
Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his severe autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts - not if he did so with criminal intent.
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."
Th
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get less time for rape! (Score:3, Informative)
get less time for rape!
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Re:get less time for rape! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh balderdash.
He's being held because he's criminally insane. He's not only expressed an intent to continue with crime, but he's not firing on all cylinders mentally and he's been physically violent on multiple occasions.
He's not being punished at this point. He's being held because he's going to hurt people again when he gets out. So comparing it to punishments for other crimes is absurd.
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Theres a history of violence, stalking and harassment of women as well.
As I note elsewhere in these comments, Rockstar is just the headline to catch eyes - the guy did a lot more than that.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/techn... [bbc.com]
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The 17-year-old was sentenced to an 18 month long Youth Rehabilitation Order, including intense supervision and a ban on using VPNs online.
As well as hacking offences the boy was sentenced for what the judge described as "unpleasant and frightening pattern of stalking and harassment" of two young women.
It was the other boy that was sentenced for stalking and harassment of two young women, not Kurtaj.
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He's being held because he's criminally insane
Do we know that to be true? I believe the term "criminal insanity" comes from US law, where a person who's criminally insane is unable to understand the difference between right and wrong. In the UK, a person who's unfit to stand trial is either unable to understand the evidence or unable to give evidence due to a disability. Someone who has autism may simply be unable to communicate verbally, and therefore unable to give evidence.
The intermet messes with people's brains (Score:2)
Are you fucking kidding me? (Score:3)
Locked up for life for some hack of a stupid video game?
What kind of insanity is that?
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This individual has committed a number of other cyber attacks in the past and (if allowed) would commit other cyber attacks in future.
Re:Are you fucking kidding me? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not for life, it's only until he's no longer a danger to others. That sounds completely sane and humane to me.
What's insane is releasing criminals before they've rehabilitated just because they've served their term, and what's inhumane is keeping people locked up when they are no longer a danger to others.
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You're just gonna gloss over that whole "violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage" part, eh? And the part where he keeps saying he wants to continue his crimes as soon as possible?
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If you tried to lock me up for good for petty bullshit like that, property damage would be your least concern.
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Nah, just someone who thinks a crime should match the punishment.
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At least read the damn summary before telling everyone you are a fool.
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British dystopia.
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Extreme violence, attempted murder, stalking, harassing, breaking bail conditions. He was declared too mentally ill to stand trial.
https://www.bbc.com/news/techn... [bbc.com]
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Obviously, since various headologists had already determined (to the satisfaction of the court) that he was "mad" rather than "bad", the question of culpability for the actions doesn't arise.
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Locked up for life for some hack of a stupid video game?
What kind of insanity is that?
You got that backwards. What kind of insanity does this kid have? The kind that gets you locked up for life. He's not locked for life due to the hack. He's a mental case who has been committed to psychiatric care until he's better. Perfectly reasonable.
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For different definitions of reasonable...
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What a waste (Score:4, Insightful)
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I can't say where this young man went off the rails, but this is a catastrophic failure of parenting, community, and society. There has got to be a better solution than sending him into a psychiatric prison for the rest of his life.
Not knowing the degree and nature of his autism I'm reluctant to start throwing around blame so liberally.
Hopefully the psychiatric prison isn't actually for the rest of his life and they have the tools to teach him to channel his talents more productively.
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but this is a catastrophic failure of parenting, community, and society
Did you just say severe mental illness is a failure of parenting? I guess you've never met a truly autistic person before, and no I'm not talking about the Slashdotter's "I don't understand people, and therefore I'm autistic" kind of autist.
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Did you just say severe mental illness is a failure of parenting?
First, being on the autism spectrum does not equate with being mentally ill. Second, no I did not say that. Third, you are mistaken. I have known many people who are on the autism spectrum. There are two young adults on the spectrum who I have known since they were born.
My cousin's son is a classic example of the autistic savant. I remember him as a small child who knew all sorts of trivia about every country in the world before he was 3 years old. I also remember the endless hours his parents and hi
Too bad (Score:2)
If he was dumb enough to say that he wants to continue to commit crimes in front of the prison psychiatrist, well... maybe it's for the best.
If I was on the jury... (Score:2)
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He wasn't sentenced to life.
His laundry list of crimes include extreme violence, attempted murder, stalking, harassment, and breaking bail conditions.
He was declared too mentally ill to stand trial. He is in hospital until he is no longer a danger to himself or others. This is not life.
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We don't filter people who have pre-judged the case out of juries here.
He's autistic (Score:1)
For those that missed it, he's autistic. That almost certainly means his desire to keep hacking things is a compulsion/obsession rather than deliberate behaviour.
That aside, those of you who think locking someone up because they pose a non violent threat to corporate interests are the ones who should be locked away. Information wants to be free, and we need to encourage anyone who's helping destroy the concept of intellectual property, even if in less than ideal ways.
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His history of extreme violence is long.
He has stalked and harassed women and poses a threat to their safety.
One thing he isn't is non-violent.
Security (Score:1)
That kind of story let me wondering that security is mostly inexistant in those companies.
The punishment does not fit the crime (Score:2)