WSJ Profiles The 'Dangerous' Autistic Teen Cybercriminal Who Leaked GTA VI Clips (msn.com) 10
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.
Re: (Score:2)
He needs better care, not incarceration. The kid never had the level of care and instruction he actually needed growing up.
Gangs (Score:2)
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 w
Re: (Score:2)
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 a
Re: (Score:2)
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:2)
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.
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)
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.