The current state of the video game industry is one of utter chaos and mayhem — not unlike a video game itself — and it now appears that it’s forcing the hand of the law.
According to a new BBC report, an 18-year-old member of the hacker collective “Lapsus$” is facing an “indefinite hospital order” after he was deemed unfit for trial in a hacking case involving Rockstar Games, the titanic video game publisher behind notable blockbuster hits like “Red Dead Redemption” and “Grand Theft Auto.”
It’s the latter series, focused on vehicular crime, that has become the massive publisher’s golden goose, with just the most recent title, “Grand Theft Auto 5” boasting over 190 million units sold since it was released in 2013, according to Statista.
The series has been something of a video game industry staple since “Grand Theft Auto III” was released back in 2001 (the series existed prior to Y2K, but was nowhere near as pervasive as it is now), so one can only imagine the agonizing decade-long wait fans had for the sixth entry in the series.
For some, that wait was apparently too much to deal with in legal ways. That’s where 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj of Oxford, England, enters this picture.
Kurtaj, as part of “Lapsus$,” hacked Rockstar Games back in September 2022, according to IGN, and released a treasure trove of footage that set the video game world ablaze on social media.
BBC noted that Kurtaj stole 90 clips of early footage of “Grand Theft Auto VI,” and fans, despite the illegal nature in which this video was procured, gobbled it up.
Perhaps the craziest part of the story is that Kurtaj hacked Rockstar while under police watch — and after having his traditional hacking equipment confiscated.
Do you think cyber-crime should be prosecuted more harshly?
“Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone,” BBC reported.
The 18-year-old clearly has considerable talent and skill to be able to, essentially, “MacGyver” his way into Rockstar’s inner workings.
Those skills, and an expressed desire to return to cyber criminality, forced a judge’s hand in issuing the indefinite hospital stay.
A mental health assessment determined that Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated.”
Kurtaj avoided standing trial after doctors diagnosed him with severe autism, with certain determining examples including several violent outbursts while in custody.
Rockstar Games has accused Kurtaj of costing the company $5 million and “thousands” of manpower hours.
Kurtaj and a 17-year-old were convicted of hacking, fraud and extortion, CBS reported.
However, “it is thought others are still at large,” the BBC reported.
This is hardly the only high-profile hack of a video game publisher of recent note.
Sony studio Insomniac Games, behind popular video game franchises like “Spider-man” and “Ratchet & Clank,” became the victim of a recent ransomware attack that may actually be worse than what happened to Rockstar.
An update regarding Insomniac and Marvel’s #WolverinePS5. pic.twitter.com/CMkCCoZwwj
— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) December 22, 2023
Not only was early footage leaked, but the ransomware attack saw Insomniac employees getting doxxed, and an early (and playable) build of its upcoming “Wolverine” video game being leaked.
“The hackers who breached Insomniac demanded a 50 BTC (roughly $2 million) ransom to not release confidential data they obtained. The ransom was not paid and the info – 1.67 terabytes of data – was released that contained videos and images of Marvel’s Wolverine, Insominac’s release slate through the early 2030s, and more. Most awful was that the data also included personal information on the staff like passport scans,” IGN reported.
