Teen GTA 6 hacker sentenced to live in prison hospital indefinitely

The British teen and Lapsus$ gang member – found guilty in August for hacking Grand Theft Auto-maker RockStar games, Nvidia Corp, Uber, and more – has been sentenced to live indefinitely in a prison hospital.

18-year old Arion Kurtaj was handed down the “indefinite hospital order” Thursday in London court.

Kurtaj, and an unnamed 17-year-old accomplice, joined forces in 2021 to carry out a massive hacking spree, which also targeted the British-based fintech-app Revolut, broadband provider BT Group, as well as mobile operator EE.

The two were charged with over a dozen counts of blackmail, fraud, and violations of the Computer Misuse Act, trying to extort their victims out of millions of dollars.

Kurtaj, who was found unfit to stand trial due to his acute autism, appeared at the sentencing via a video stream, according to the BBC, who first reported the news.

The judge said the decision was based on a mental health assessment performed specifically for the sentencing.

The assessment found Kurtaj "continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible,” and that “he is highly motivated."

While in custody, doctors also reported dozens of injury and property damage incidents involving the Oxford teen.

Along with his hacking skills, the judge determined that Kurtaj was still a high risk to public safety and said he would remain at the secure hospital for life unless doctors decided he was no longer a threat.

Kurtaj – known by the online name “Teapot” – hacked Rockstar Games in September 2022 – claiming to have accessed the company's Slack servers using only an Amazon Firestick, a hotel TV, and a mobile phone.

This, all while living in a Travelodge hotel, awaiting trial, under police protection, and without access to a computer.

Meanwhile, the unnamed 17-year-old, who had previously pleaded guilty to their own charges before Kurtaj’s trial, was also caught hacking the City of London police after being arrested.

Kurtaj wound up leaking multiple videos of unreleased features for an upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 video game release on a GTA forum.

Just days earlier, Kurtaj was able to breach Uber using similar tactics, also posting about the attack on Uber’s corporate Slack channels.

The attack is still considered one of the biggest leaks in video game history creating a nightmare for Rockstar Games.

Earlier this week, more than 1.3 million files stolen from Sony-owned Insomniac Games in early December, were leaked online by the Rhysida ransom group.