The court in the UK found that the 18-year-old teenager from Oxford Arion Kurtaj was part of the Lapsus $ hacker group, responsible for the hack of a number of technological companies, including Nvidia and Rockstar Games. As a result of these hacks, there was a leak of videos from Grand Theft Auto 6, which was preparing for the exit of the game, which Rockstar has not yet officially introduced, and the court found out that Kurtaj passed the videos from the hotel, already released on bail after arrest after another hack.
The trial took place at Southwark Crown Court and lasted seven weeks. It was proposed to determine the jury whether Kurtja is responsible for the actions that he is charged with, and not whether they were committed with a criminal intent. The judge recognized Kurtaja to be unable to appear before the court after examination by psychiatrists, so the accused did not testify.
The jury found Kurtaja guilty of all 12 charges (via Bloomberg). Along with this, a 17-year-old teenager, whose name cannot be called by virtue of his age, pleaded guilty of two accusations of hacking, was found guilty of another charges and was justified by two more.
The couple met on the Internet, after which she began to engage in hacking in July 2021. On August 1, 2021, Lapsus $ attacked BT and EE telecommunication companies, demanding a ransom of 4 million. dollars. The ransom was not paid, but SIM cards data were used to steal cryptocurrency in the amount of 100 thousand. pounds sterling with wallets attached to them.
Both hackers were arrested on January 22, 2022 and released before further investigation. They continued to engage in hacking, and in February 2022 it turned out that they were involved in the successful attack by Lapsus $ on Nvidia. The group abducted and leaked the internal data of NVIDIA, threatening to issue even more if a ransom is not paid. This attack was aimed at NVIDIA employees: they called on the phone and sent SMS messages late in the evening.
Soon after this, Kurtaj was exposed by competitors, after which both hackers were re -arrested on March 31, 2022. Due to fears for his safety in connection with the doxing of Kurtaj, he was placed by the police in the hotel and was released on bail, including a ban on Internet access.
It was here that Kurtaj was involved in a hacker attack on Rockstar Games (as BBC reported). During this attack, Kurtj posted in Slack (messaging system for the entire company) Message: "I’m not an employee Rockstar, I am an attacker". He stated that he has all the data for Grand Theft Auto 6 and that if Rockstar does not get in touch within 24 hours, then he "start to disclose the source code". Then, on the GTA forum, the Teapotuberhacker user posted 90 videos from the game.
Later, during a search of the Kurtja hotel room, the police found on the Amazon Fire Stick TV, a smartphone, a keyboard and a mouse – all that allowed him to go to the Internet. Or, as the accusation was expressed, Kurtag was "Caught red -handed". He was immediately arrested and was detained before the court.
The scale of success of Lapsus $ is not in doubt, but the methods that she used were equally both classic fraudulent, for example, employees and actually hacker. The prosecutors called them "digital bandits" And they especially noted the public celebration by the group of their work and how later hacked objects were subjected to mockery and threats. According to the host of Barrister’s accusation, Kevin Barry, Kurtaj and his fellow comrades showed $ "teenage desire to show two fingers to those whom they attack".
None of the hacked companies admitted publicly that she paid Lapsus $ any ransom, and it is not known how much money the group earned on their activities. It is assumed that the members of Lapsus $ remain free. In October 2022. The Brazilian police arrested a person who was supposedly part of the group, but subsequently did not report whether the charges were charged or would be charged.
Kurtadge was detained, and a 17-year-old teenager was released on bail. The sentence will be sent out later, and the judge will have to decide whether Kurtaj will be hospitalized or released under supervision.