In movies, a hacker usually sits at a huge workstation, surrounded by cutting-edge gear. In reality, all you need is an Amazon Fire TV stick, smartphone, keyboard, and mouse to collect and leak footage from an upcoming game like Grand Theft Auto IV. That’s exactly what Arion Kurtaj, a member of the hacking organisation Lapsus$, did while on bail for allegedly hacking NVIDIA, according to BBC News.
The 18-year-old entered Rockstar Games, the studio behind GTA VI, even announcing himself as an “attacker” on the business’s Slack channel. Where was the crime committed? Officials at a Travelodge hotel in the United Kingdom had placed him there.
Kurtaj was relocated to the hotel after hackers “doxxed” him, leaking personal information about him and his family online and jeopardising his safety. He was not allowed an internet connection while he was there, so he used the Fire TV Stick to get around this.
Following a seven-week trial and his conviction for hacking Rockstar, neobank Revolut, and Uber, further information about Kurtaj’s unlawful stunt became public. A 17-year-old was also convicted, but unlike Kurtaj, he remains free on bond. The two people are autistic, and psychiatrists ruled that they are ineligible to stand trial. This meant that the jury merely considered whether the crimes were committed, not whether they were committed with criminal intent.
Kurtaj and the anonymous 17-year-old are two of seven Lapsus$ members who have been detained in the UK. Lapsus$, referred to in court as a group of “digital bandits,” is thought to be mostly made up of youths from Brazil and the UK. Lapsus$ is also said to have hacked Microsoft, Samsung, and T-Mobile between 2021 and 2022. Although the gang demanded ransoms, it’s not apparent how much money, if any, it made from these exploits.