Arion Kurtaj stunned Rockstar Games last year when in September, he leaked a slew of clips from an unreleased GTA game which went viral. The clips showed gameplay of what was alleged to be from the development version of GTA 6, which led to one of the biggest investigations ever to be launched in the gaming industry. The clippings were forcefully taken down from all social media platforms, YouTube, and anywhere Rockstar Games could possibly delete them from.
The footage looked raw in terms of the visuals but revealed a whole lot of information about the upcoming game, which Rockstar Games then went on to claim has been in the works for a long time now. After a long and tiring investigation, the hacker was caught and sentenced on multiple counts, and his modus operandi was quite surprising when revealed.
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The 18-Year-Old Rockstar Games Hacker Was an Important Part of a UK Hacking Group
Arion Kurtaj is just an 18-year-old which was not even the most surprising part of his hacking exploits of such a major gaming company like Rockstar Games. The most surprising part of his infamous endeavor was how he got around to hacking the network – using an Amazon Fire Stick that allowed him to connect to cloud computing services, and a smartphone, mouse, and keyboard. Arion was charged with several violations of the UK’s Computer Misuse Act, including blackmail and fraud.
Arion was based out of Oxford, England, and was a key part of a Hacker group named Lapsus$, which was also behind data breaches of Uber and Nvidia. The group is based out of the UK and has been termed quite dangerous. The group is infamous for hacking into secure servers of large companies, and blackmailing for ransoms. The group was found to have committed their first hack back in 2021 and had been on a hacking streak ever since, before breaking into Rockstar Games.
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Arion Kurtaj’s Earlier Exploits Before Hacking into Rockstar Games
Back in 2021, Arion Kurtaj had previously hacked into data from restricted servers that were owned by UK-based companies BT and EE. Arion had worked with another minor associate, stole BT and EE’s user data, and demanded a ransom of $4 million. This led to the arrest of both minors before they were released under investigation. The duo, however, did not stop their exploits, as immediately post-release, they hacked into the servers owned by NVIDIA in February 2022, and blackmailed the company for ransom.
A UK court found Kurtaj guilty of having tricked and harassed the NVIDIA Corp. employees online which helped him gain access to the company’s servers. They were both arrested again in March 2022, but unfortunately, Kurtaj’s details were already out and he was kept in a Travelodge hotel in Bicester, England so he could be kept away from being bullied. For the same reason, the UK law enforcement team also barred him from using the internet.
Despite being barred from using the Internet, Arion somehow managed to access cloud computing services, which helped his exploitation of the Rockstar Games servers. This ultimately led him to access and leak several old footage of the unfinished, raw clips of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto game.
Arion Kurtaj Currently in Custody, While His Associate is on Bail
Arion Kurtaj was apprehended with the Fire Stick and the data he had on Rockstar Games and was immediately tried in a UK court along with his associate. Both Arion and his associate were found to be autistic at the time of the hearing, leading them both to be unfit for trial. Kurtaj is being kept in custody, but his associate is currently on bail as he is still a 17-year-old minor. For the same reasons, his associate’s details haven’t been revealed by the law enforcement agency.
While Arion’s future is currently unclear, he has dealt a big blow to Rockstar Games who have been taking a whole lot of security measures to avoid similar circumstances in the future.
Source: Kotaku
