GTA 6 hacker to be detained indefinitely after MacGyver-esque Rockstar attack
A hacker belonging to the cyber-crime gang Lapsus$ has been handed an indefinite hospital order by a British court. The 18-year old from Oxford, United Kingdom, was responsible for a breach at Nvidia and BT/EE, after which he was detained by police. Despite having his laptop confiscated, he managed to hack GTA 6 developer Rockstar Games by using a hotel TV, his mobile phone, and an Amazon Firestick – the guy is basically a psychopathic MacGyver.
The BBC reported that the judge deems the criminal as too much of a danger to the public to be let go as he’s feeling no remorse and has a high desire to keep committing crimes. He was also violent during his detainment after the infamous GTA 6 hack, which saw him breach the studio’s Slack from where he stole 90 clips of the upcoming game as the source code. Examples of both were posted on the internet at the time as part of his ultimatum to Rockstar to contact him.
A scene from the recent GTA 6 trailer.
Rockstar / Take-Two
He’ll be kept in a secure mental hospital until a reassessment shows a change in his attitude.
One accomplice, who is a year younger than the GTA 6 hacker, got a milder sentence that includes intense supervision and a ban of using VPNs. He, too, sounds like an unsavory type, being described as showing an “unpleasant and frightening pattern of stalking and harassment” of women.
Authorities have not managed to access the two hackers’ cryptocurrency wallets, so it’s unclear how much they were able to steal over the duration of their activities.
While the two British citizens have been caught and sentenced, other members of the group are still thought to be at large. It frequently used both English and Portuguese in its communications with the public, such as after successfully pulling off one of its coups, which makes authorities think that part of the gang is operating from Brazil.
Rockstar Games informed the court during proceedings that it estimated the damage from the hack to have amounted to $5 million USD and “thousands of hours” of staff time. It released the first official GTA 6 trailer earlier this month.
