The man who hacked Rockstar Games and leaked details about GTA 6 managed to pull it off with just an Amazon Fire Stick.
While most law-abiding citizens simply use Amazon Fire Sticks to stream films and TV shows, a British teen had a different idea.
The culprit, 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj, has been convicted for hacking the makers of the GTA series, along with an unnamed 17-year-old.
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Because both Kurtaj and the younger teen are autistic, it was decided that they would be unfit to stand trial. Jurors therefore had to determine whether or not they committed the acts they were accused of, not if they did the alleged acts with criminal intent.
So, how did Kurtaj manage to infiltrate one of the most successful video game makers in the world? Kurtaj had an Amazon Fire Stick which he plugged into his hotel television, which allowed him to connect to cloud services through a smartphone he recently purchased.
After connecting, he managed to hack Rockstar Games and announced himself as ‘an attacker’ to employees via the company’s Slack page. He then threatened to leak the source code if Rockstar failed to contact him via Telegram in the next 24 hours.
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There are a lot of ironies in this case and the first revolves around the reason why Kurtaj was at the hotel in the first place. The teen was there because he was on bail, as both he and the unnamed 17-year-old were part of the hacker group known as Lapsus$. They had already been arrested because of their alleged involvement in a similar hacking incident against the software company, Nvidia.
After rival hackers doxed Kurtaj and the contact details of members of his family, he was moved to a hotel in Bicester for his safety. As per his bail conditions, he was banned from using the internet, which he clearly paid no attention to.
In another case of irony, although Kurtaj scooped a significant amount of prototype footage, none of it was very shocking because everything fans learned from the leak had been hinted at through the regular sources.
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In a statement shared in September last year, Rockstar explained that they'd been hit with a leak after a 'network intrusion', saying someone 'illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information', including footage from the development of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto.
"We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way,” the company said.
"Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations.
"We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support in this situation."
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Kurtaj remains in custody while the 17-year-old is out on bail. Both teens will be sentenced at a later date.
Topics: Gaming, Crime, UK News, US News, Grand Theft Auto