“GTA 6 Hacker” Unfit To Stand Trial, Allegedly Caused Millions In Damages | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #hacker

The 18-year-old accused of hacking Rockstar and leaking material on GTA 6 has been deemed unfit to stand trial. Instead, a jury will assess whether or not he is liable for the criminal charges, not whether he is guilty or not guilty.

Arion Kurtaj, who has just been named by the court after turning 18, has also been accused of causing millions in damages in cyber crimes against Nvidia, Uber, Revolut, BT, and EE. A 17-year-old alleged accomplice will stand trial for these charges, and has faced further accusations of hacking the police after their initial arrest,

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So far, court documents show that Kurtaj and the unnamed 17-year-old have made multiple appearances at London’s Southwark Crown Court. As reported by Reuters, the court has heard that the teens hacked multiple companies, including Rockstar, and then blackmailed the game studio with threats of releasing source code.

However, the court has also heard that Kurtaj has been deemed unfit to stand trial by psychiatrists. Under UK law, this means the defendant wouldn’t be able to understand the evidence put before them or give evidence on their own behalf. No such ruling has been made for the 17-year-old, who will presumably stand trial for the alleged cyber crimes.

A jury will still decide whether Kurtaj committed the crimes. This includes the infamous GTA 6 hack – which saw numerous assets and pieces of information shared online – and the alleged hack and blackmailing of Nvidia.

It’s this hack of Rockstar that propelled this case into the public eye in the summer of 2022. After years of silence from official channels, the hack gave us 90 videos of what the game looks like in development. It confirmed that there would be two protagonists – Jason and Lucia – and that it would be set in a modern Vice City. At the time, Rockstar confirmed that the footage was legitimate, but isn’t reflective of the final product.

There were fears that so much confidential information being shared online would cause disruptions, but Rockstar clarified that it shouldn’t result in any delays – not that we have any idea when GTA 6 will be launching in any case. That wasn’t the end of the consequences of the hack though, as later in the year, GTA 5’s source code appeared online.

Kurtaj has been charged with three counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud, and six breaches of the Computer Misuse Act. The 17-year-old faces two counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud, and three charges under the Computer Misuse Act.

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