WSJ Profiles The 'Dangerous' Autistic Teen Cybercriminal Who Leaked GTA VI Clips (msn.com) 30
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:3)
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: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:Gangs (Score:5, 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:4, Interesting)
Well know by whom? (Score:2)
"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: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: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:3)
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.
But is autism an excuse? (Score:1)
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.
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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:4, 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: (Score:2)
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
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:3)
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.
Delete health records: life imprisonment (Score:2)
Sick doesn't mean harmless (Score:3)
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:1)