WSJ Profiles The 'Dangerous' Autistic Teen Cybercriminal Who Leaked GTA VI Clips (msn.com) 78
The Wall Street Journal delves into the origin story of that teenaged Grand Theft Auto VI leaker.
Arion Kurtaj, now 19 years old, is the most notorious name that has emerged from a sprawling set of online communities called the Com... Their youthful inventiveness and tenacity, as well as their status as minors that make prosecution more complicated, have made the Com especially dangerous, according to law-enforcement officials and cybersecurity investigators. Some kids, they say, are recruited from popular online spaces like Minecraft or Roblox.... [William McKeen, a supervisory special agent with the FBI's Cyber Division] said the average age of anyone arrested for a crime in the U.S. is 37, while the average age of someone arrested for cybercrime is 19. Cybersecurity investigators have found posts they say suggest Kurtaj has been involved in online attacks since he was 11.
"He had limited social skills and trouble developing relationships, records say — and ultimately looked for approval in the booming world of cybercrime..." [When Kurtaj was 14] he landed in a residential school serving children with severe emotional and behavioral needs. Kurtaj was physically assaulted by a staff member at his school who was later convicted as a result, according to a person familiar with the case. In early 2021, his mother brought him home and removed him from government care, court records say. He never returned to school. He was 16.
A month after his mother pulled him out of school, investigators say that Kurtaj was part of a hacking group called Recursion Team that broke into the videogame firm Electronic Arts and stole 780 gigabytes of data. When Electronic Arts refused to engage, they dumped the stolen data online. Within a week of that hack, investigators had identified Kurtaj and provided his name to the FBI. Later in that summer of 2021, according to court records, Kurtaj partnered with another teenager, known as ASyntax, and several Brazilian hackers, and started calling themselves Lapsus$. The group hacked into the British telecommunications giant BT in an effort to steal money using a technique called SIM swapping... The hacks weren't always for money. In late 2021, Lapsus$ hacked into a website operated by Brazil's Ministry of Health and deleted the country's database of Covid vaccinations, according to law enforcement...
If the Com has a social center, it's a website called Doxbin, where users publish personal details, such as home addresses and phone numbers, of their online rivals in an attempt to intimidate each other. Kurtaj bought Doxbin in November 2021 for $75,000, according to Chainalysis. But after a few months, the previous owners accused Kurtaj of mismanaging the site and pressured him to sell it back. He relented. Then in January 2022, cybersecurity investigators say, he doxxed the entire site, publishing a database that included usernames, passwords and email addresses that he'd downloaded when he was the owner. For cybersecurity experts, it was a gold mine. "It helped investigators piece together which crimes were done by who," said Allison Nixon, chief research officer at Unit 221B, an online investigations firm.
Doxbin's owners responded with a dox of Kurtaj and his family, including his home address and photos of him, investigators say — setting up the chain of events that would put Kurtaj in the Travelodge.
After two weeks of "protective custody" there — during which time he was supposed to be computer-free — Kurtaj "was arrested a third time and charged with hacking, fraud and blackmail. Authorities said that while at the Travelodge, he broke into Uber and taunted the company by posting a link to a photo of an erect penis on the company's internal Slack messaging system, then stole software and videos from Rockstar Games. Stolen clips had popped up in a Grand Theft Auto discussion forum from a user named teapotuberhacker and stirred a frenzy.
"As officers collected evidence, the teen stood by, emotionless, police say...."
"Kurtaj's lawyers and some experts on autism have said a potential lifetime of incarceration isn't appropriate for a teenager like Kurtaj..."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader SpzToid for sharing the article.
"He had limited social skills and trouble developing relationships, records say — and ultimately looked for approval in the booming world of cybercrime..." [When Kurtaj was 14] he landed in a residential school serving children with severe emotional and behavioral needs. Kurtaj was physically assaulted by a staff member at his school who was later convicted as a result, according to a person familiar with the case. In early 2021, his mother brought him home and removed him from government care, court records say. He never returned to school. He was 16.
A month after his mother pulled him out of school, investigators say that Kurtaj was part of a hacking group called Recursion Team that broke into the videogame firm Electronic Arts and stole 780 gigabytes of data. When Electronic Arts refused to engage, they dumped the stolen data online. Within a week of that hack, investigators had identified Kurtaj and provided his name to the FBI. Later in that summer of 2021, according to court records, Kurtaj partnered with another teenager, known as ASyntax, and several Brazilian hackers, and started calling themselves Lapsus$. The group hacked into the British telecommunications giant BT in an effort to steal money using a technique called SIM swapping... The hacks weren't always for money. In late 2021, Lapsus$ hacked into a website operated by Brazil's Ministry of Health and deleted the country's database of Covid vaccinations, according to law enforcement...
If the Com has a social center, it's a website called Doxbin, where users publish personal details, such as home addresses and phone numbers, of their online rivals in an attempt to intimidate each other. Kurtaj bought Doxbin in November 2021 for $75,000, according to Chainalysis. But after a few months, the previous owners accused Kurtaj of mismanaging the site and pressured him to sell it back. He relented. Then in January 2022, cybersecurity investigators say, he doxxed the entire site, publishing a database that included usernames, passwords and email addresses that he'd downloaded when he was the owner. For cybersecurity experts, it was a gold mine. "It helped investigators piece together which crimes were done by who," said Allison Nixon, chief research officer at Unit 221B, an online investigations firm.
Doxbin's owners responded with a dox of Kurtaj and his family, including his home address and photos of him, investigators say — setting up the chain of events that would put Kurtaj in the Travelodge.
After two weeks of "protective custody" there — during which time he was supposed to be computer-free — Kurtaj "was arrested a third time and charged with hacking, fraud and blackmail. Authorities said that while at the Travelodge, he broke into Uber and taunted the company by posting a link to a photo of an erect penis on the company's internal Slack messaging system, then stole software and videos from Rockstar Games. Stolen clips had popped up in a Grand Theft Auto discussion forum from a user named teapotuberhacker and stirred a frenzy.
"As officers collected evidence, the teen stood by, emotionless, police say...."
"Kurtaj's lawyers and some experts on autism have said a potential lifetime of incarceration isn't appropriate for a teenager like Kurtaj..."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader SpzToid for sharing the article.
What's appropriate (Score:1)
a potential lifetime of incarceration isn't appropriate for a teenager like Kurtaj..
Don't care. It may very well be appropriate for society. Some people might just not be fixable. In which case, they need to be secured someplace where they can do a minimum of damage to others.
Leaking clips of GTA, for example, really doesn't rise to the level of "danger to society" (sorry Rockstar, Electronic Arts and Uber). But some of the other stuff this kid got into could be.
Re:What's appropriate (Score:4, Insightful)
He needs better care, not incarceration. The kid never had the level of care and instruction he actually needed growing up.
Gangs (Score:4, Insightful)
There was a mom and pop resturant I use to frequent.
Over time it became apparent nearly every neerdowell in town worked there. Lots of disabled kids, but here they were a fuctional unit (and the food was pretty good too).
And it kinda dawned me I've heard of or seen similar things- allowing those who are on the fringes to develop life skills and community through employment. Not too far removed from how gangs operate.
And it also struck me how few of those opportunities are available to kids today.
And gangs will take advantage of that.
Re:Gangs (Score:5, Interesting)
It it quite well known that autistic kids fall into 2 categories at school. They are either teachers pet, or the delinquent, depending on where they get more favorable attention. Autistic kids don't generally have friends at school, so the outcome depends almost entirely on the teacher.
If the autistic kid is lucky and in addition he has above average IQ, he can become the next Nikola Tesla with proper education. People often think autistic people are stupid just because neurotypicals and autistics are bad at communicating with each other, but in reality it is usually the other way around. It is really hard to make teachers understand that a kid who has trouble answering questions like "what is your favorite food" is able to solve math problems several years above his age group. I know a kid who was 6-9 years above others in math, but was forced to practice numbers 1-10 with the other kids in his age group. What a waste of potential.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If the autistic kid is lucky and in addition he has above average IQ, he can become the next Nikola Tesla with proper education.
Yeah, about that...
With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. (from the Wikipedia entry for Nikola Tesla)
Being able to communicate and work with others is always going to be a crucial component of achieving success.
Re: (Score:2)
Being able to communicate and work with others is always going to be a crucial component of achieving success.
Tesla wasn't great at that himself, and unfortunately the money men he got hooked up with who were didn't share his grand vision of improvement for humanity. They were only interested in the short term profit prospects.
Re: Gangs (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
The idea that you are a genius because you are great in a narrow field is much more attractive than I "suck" at everything else. It may end up in a lonely life, talking to pigeons. That is also Tesla.
It's somewhat understandable. If you're really good at one thing, it's very easy in comparison to everything else and that creates a certain derision for those other things. The one very good thing can become a crutch against having to develop other skills or even the meta skill of learning how to overcome your own weaknesses and get better at things you need. This isn't necessarily limited to autistic kids either. I'm sure everyone remembers the kid in school that was really good at sports and just wanted
Re: (Score:2)
This isn't necessarily limited to autistic kids either. I'm sure everyone remembers the kid in school that was really good at sports and just wanted to play more ball than studying or doing their schoolwork.
Yeah, those kids got participation trophies for their schoolwork because they helped win sports trophies, so they got the idea that they were at least as smart as anyone else and now they watch Faux News and "do their own research" and guess how they vote [theintercept.com]?
Well know by whom? (Score:4, Insightful)
"It it quite well known that autistic kids fall into 2 categories at school"
Really? You'll be able to point to some research on this then. IME limited experience autistic people just like anyone else have a broad spectrum of personalities they can't just be put into one or other box labelled good or bad.
Re: (Score:2)
Over here (I live in Hong Kong since 12 years) I am lucky his regular local school gets subsidies for specific training towards these special needs kids, once per week. For him it is explicitly learning certain social skills that don't come naturally. Plus we regularly organise other similar training through professionals in weekends, and also have him go to Boy Scouts and the like. Finally, we have been following quite a few lessons ourselves abo
Re: (Score:1)
Autistic kids usually start having problems at school around age 11-13. It is common that they have friends before that. But around that age, the other kids change faster that autistic kids and they are left out from the group. In addition teachers can assume them to be able to do things that normal 12-year-olds can do and this can lead into all sorts of problems.
You might have a better luck than average, since your kid already has a diagnosis so you know what is behind everything and can react accordingly.
Re: (Score:3)
When I was a kid, I and a few other kids started cracking games when we were 10-11 because we thought we were smarter than the people that created the protection (which, I gotta admit, we were). There were probably kids on the autistic spectrum in the group, certainly. 5-6 of us elementary school kids joined high school kids and contributed at least as much as they did. There were a couple of adults that were great mentors, though. The reality is, we were also HUGE fans of games and began commercializing sk
Re: (Score:3)
Out of my group of teenage friends where we'd all dick around with computers and play LAN party games (in the late 90s), only one of us ended up going into and staying with I.T., and he hates how stressful his job is. I went into the HVAC trade, another friend joined the military, and the last guy in our group tried starting his own PC repair business and it ultimately succumbed to the 90% rule. [investopedia.com]
At the time we were teens though, all of us kept hearing from parents and teachers how we'd probably be so succes
Re: (Score:2)
While I did hear if you were in Silicon Valley during the first dotcom boom, some companies were giving well-paying jobs to kids with only high school diplomas, we all lived on the other side of the country in Florida, where that absolutely was not the case.
It was true in Texas as well. I never even got a high school diploma (I took the CHSPE, which you could do much earlier than either graduating or getting the GED) and got hired as a sysadmin at a local IC design shop. Then I got hired away to Austin to do tech support for significantly more money because they needed people with my particular set of skills (experience with a broad range of flavors of UNIX) badly. It turned out that I hated living there, though.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Being nice is a start, but being nice isn't care to begin with. He was physically abused by staff at a school theoretically meant for kids like him. I doubt his parents were able to personally provide the type of care this kid needed or afford it. Meaning he literally couldn't improve.
Re: What's appropriate (Score:2)
That's true of almost all criminals. Once you hit 18, you're either responsible for your actions or you're an invalid who shouldn't be allowed to make your own decisions.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: What's appropriate (Score:2)
Being in need of care doesn't imply that someone is under obligation to provide that care.
Re: (Score:2)
Being in need of care doesn't imply that someone is under obligation to provide that care.
...and that's how we know this isn't a Christian nation
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think the parents were straight up bad or negligent (with the information I have), just not capable or affluent enough to do much else.
Re: (Score:2)
lock up will just tech him street skills the ones (Score:2)
lock up will just tech him street skills the ones that lead to shoplifting and more
Re: (Score:2)
What makes you think a legitimately good cyber criminal is going to suddenly pick up shoplifting?
If he figures out how to not be a twit, he'll do real crimes for real monies on the regular.
Yes, the school system failed him. Yes, mumsy probably should have got him more of whatever he needed, but parents can only do so much on their own, and after some idiot at an institution of some sort got handsy I think most people would consider being alone and on their own better than anybody else being around.
Unfortun
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Pulling out of school and saying f the world wasn't exactly a unique thing in the depths of covid. Put people in bad situations...and they do bad things.
Most moral high ground folk are just dipshits that got lucky and never had to fight for something before.
Re: What's appropriate (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
But is autism an excuse? (Score:3, Insightful)
The kid is a criminal. He should be judged like any individual who committed the same crimes - and whether you believe what he did weren't really crimes is an orthogonal issue.
The fact that autism contributed to send him down the wrong path is sad and unfortunate. But is it an excuse to dodge prison?
If one argues that it is, then why deal with psychopathic murderers or pedos differently? They too have a crippling mental illness and they're not known to elicit leniancy from trial juries.
Re: (Score:2)
The kid is a criminal. He should be judged like any individual who committed the same crimes
He is being judged that way. The entire criminal justice system takes mental illness into account, not just autism, but a whole host of other mental deficiencies as well. Seriously go back to civics class.
Re: (Score:2)
Calling it an "excuse" is already disconnected from reality and basically dishonest.
Generally, the enlightened stance is that it does not make sense to punish anybody that does not really get what they did wrong or cannot change on their own. Obviously, you can still imprison somebody like that for revenge, but that puts you on the moral level of a cave-man. (With apologies to all cave-men...) Unfortunately, many people operate on that level, even today. They refuse to understand reality in order to be able
Re:But is autism an excuse? (Score:5, Insightful)
Generally, the enlightened stance is that it does not make sense to punish anybody that does not really get what they did wrong or cannot change on their own. Obviously, you can still imprison somebody like that for revenge, but that puts you on the moral level of a cave-man.
Describes sociopaths and psychopaths. Says we're wrong for wanting to keep them away from potential victims.
Good one. Top notch.
Re: But is autism an excuse? (Score:2)
Read more carefully the comment above you, especially the last paragraph. It may be a necessary evil to isolate from society someone who due to no fault of their own can't stop doing harm to others. I emphasize "necessary". If there is no hope for improvement, then this isolation can and should be for life, of course.
Re:But is autism an excuse? (Score:4, Insightful)
Describes sociopaths and psychopaths. Says we're wrong for wanting to keep them away from potential victims.
Punish means "inflict a penalty or sanction on (someone) as retribution for an offense, especially a transgression of a legal or moral code."
What you seem to be claiming to want, since you invoke "potential victims" specifically, is protection. But what you are asking for is retribution.
Perhaps you don't understand the meaning of the word "punish". In that case, I suggest you spend more time with the reference material for the language, like dictionaries.
An "enlightened" person (to continue the tradition in this thread of placing that word in quotation marks) does not seek retribution, they pursue improvement of a situation. That can mean incarceration, but if that is the best we can do then we are failing to be compassionate. I for one want to live in a world where both protection and compassion are civic values, and I believe that world can exist. It is unfortunately incompatible with fascism, which has other purposes for the money it would take for our society to be both protectional and compassionate, such as yacht collections.
TL;DR: It is right to want to keep sociopaths and psychopaths away from potential victims. It is not right to want to "punish" people, as it does not improve outcomes and also increases human suffering. If we really want to keep sociopaths and psychopaths away from potential victims we should be opposing the copyright cartel, and everything for which they stand.
Re: (Score:2)
It is not right to want to "punish" people, as it does not improve outcomes and also increases human suffering.
This is an argument for permitting pyschopaths to harm strangers because "feelings". This is not a great argument. It's normally followed by "but how could we know they'd do this terrible thing!?"
Life is pain and suffering. If you're trying to dictate that the universe be anything other - that's some seriously enormous ego you have there. Record-setting.
Re: (Score:2)
This is an argument for permitting pyschopaths to harm strangers because "feelings"
You don't even understand the argument, kid. That's why you got ratioed. Why don't you leave arguments to people who speak the language?
Re: (Score:2)
You seem to have a reading dysfunctionality. Read my posting again before you shoot your mouth off.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe go back to changing your mysteriously unique passwords?
Re: But is autism an excuse? (Score:2)
"with apologies to all cavemen"
Looks around; clears throat
"Apology accepted; but you must prepare to defend your honor just the same. Did you bring your bat'leth?"
Re: (Score:2)
The justice system is there for the good of society. Towards that end it needs to protect us from those who behave unacceptably by identifying them and removing them from situations where they can harm those of us who are following the rules.
Once someone has broken the rules badly enough to require the justice system to intervene, the punishment should be severe enough to act as conditioning to prevent recidivism and as a deterrent (the effectiveness of this varies by the type of crime).
It's ALSO good for
"assaulted by a staff member " (Score:5, Interesting)
While I don't condone the behavoiour, reading about this little turd I can understand how some staff member having a bad day could snap and given "physical assault" these days often just means a slap or shove, not the beaten to a pulp that it used to mean back in the day. Everyones patience has its limits.
Also I get fed up with autism being used as an excuse for criminal behaviour. The vast majority of people on the spectrum lead productive lives and I suspect with this brat its more a case of he ALSO has autism along with probably antisocial personality disorder. They're not mutually exclusive.
Re: "assaulted by a staff member " (Score:2)
When you're a member of the staff of an institution for children with special needs, you don't have the right to let your patience reach its limits, and even less to assault the kids. When you feel this happening, you just leave ASAP, because you've been working the wrong job. There is no excuse for this staff member. Even if the kid pissed in his shoes.
Re: (Score:2)
it's nice that you're flipping out over a word that has been rendered meaningless
Look at you proving you don't believe in bodily autonomy by condoning abuse. SO EDGY, COWARD!
Delete health records: life imprisonment (Score:5, Insightful)
Sick doesn't mean harmless (Score:5, Interesting)
If he has a disorder - genetic, developmental, or behavioural... it doesn't matter in terms of whether he should be allowed to be free in our society.
What matters is that he has no regard for the law and is possibly incapable of being trained to act like he does. The only current reasonable expectation is that he will continue to commit crimes at every opportunity, and he's talented at finding those opportunities.
If you think he can be saved, by all means lock him up in a mental health facility instead of a prison, but lock him up.
Repeat Offender (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Repeat Offender (Score:4, Insightful)
A huge chunk of US society is flat-out opposed to the idea of using counseling and social work to deal with crime. It’s been conclusively shown that 1$ spent on social workers will save >1$ in prison, indigent care and uninsured hospital expenses, but most of our society would rather hand $10,000 to the police and another $100,000 to build more prisons, before they spend $5 on a social worker who might actually be able to help an addict or a homeless person. I consider myself pro-police and pro-law-and-order, but our attitudes on this are flat-out stupid. We should pay social workers to deal with most of the addicts/homeless/mentally-ill and free up the cops to deal with the really difficult people. It would be both safer and cheaper.
Re: (Score:2)
We should pay social workers to deal with most of the addicts/homeless/mentally-ill and free up the cops to deal with the really difficult people. It would be both safer and cheaper.
We are trying to do that in California but our stupid governor only wants concentration camps for the homeless. He was so excited about America's Hitler's supreme court saying he could lock them up...
Re: (Score:2)
> free up the cops to deal with the really difficult people.
Mental health calls should be a social worker paired with a cop for protection. You'd get less 'called the cops to help and they solved the problem with a bullet' news articles.
We give cops a gun, inform them the world is out to get them and they'll die if they let their guard down, and then we tell them to be social workers. I have no idea why we're surprised when they use the tools they were trained with instead.
Re: (Score:2)
Security (Score:2)
Re:Security (Score:4, Informative)
You missed this,
"hacked into a website operated by Brazil's Ministry of Health and deleted the country's database of Covid vaccinations, "
If you are chronically ill and your entire medical history vanishes you might just be in trouble. Sure, if mine vanishes nothing important is lost, and presumably the same applies to you. Others are not so fortunate.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If I throw something off a tall building for fun then I doubt many people would consider my actions safe because it turned that unbeknownst to
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Although it is possible to overstate the danger of what this individual did it is also easy to act like it wasn't dangerou
Re: Security (Score:3)
Turn it around... (Score:2)
Should the parents be held responsible? (Score:2, Insightful)
A student is pulled from a residential school serving children with severe emotional and behavioral needs.
His parents had no idea what the ex-student was doing in the bedroom or basement?
Incarceration vs. control (Score:2)
But he clearly needs to be controlled for a solid 10-15 years, and then assessed again when his brain is in a more mature state. Deleting the health records of an entire na
Re: (Score:1)
Deleting the health records of an entire nation. Thatâ(TM)s impressive, but could actually lead to someone dying.
He should be pressed into community service and provided counseling, and the person who designed a health record system for an entire nation that could be hacked into and everything deleted should be imprisoned.
modded by the clueless (Score:2)
Ever heard of write only databases, noob?
Dont know about dangerous (Score:2)
Any one else think "typhoid Mary" (Score:2)
A woman who was asymptomatic for typhoid but carried the disease , proving lethal to many she had contact with.