this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker sentenced to life in hospital prison::Judge says hacker remains a high risk through his skills and motivation to carry out cyber-crime.

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[–] [email protected] 122 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

The boy hacked Rockstar using a TV, a fire stick and a phone! I think he deserves a medal, a scholarship and a high payed job as a security consultant, not punishment. Instead they destroy his life for ... being too smart and too talented?! Fuck capitalism!

[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago (2 children)

He sounds like a very troubled kid: “ The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage.”. He is deemed a danger to himself or others so is being placed is a secure hospital for safety, hopefully he will get treatment there. He will be released if the doctors deem he is no longer a danger.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Are there any reports of him being violent outside of custody though? If not, he is obviously not a danger to the public and the primary problem is that he was put in custody.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but people saw a video game before it was released.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The damage this monster did to society is immeasurable!

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think the real problem (and not saying I agree, just the motivation of the legal system) is that he keeps saying he intends to keep breaking the laws he's been convicted of.

In most countries, that doesn't go down well.

Having said that, this is a stealth whole life tariff. These should be reserved for the most heinous crimes. The sadistic/multiple murderers and the like. Not compulsive hacking.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah people like to ignore the part where it says something along the lines of " he will stay in prison hospital for life or until a doctor determines he isn't a danger to himself or society."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I think the problem is that once institutionalised, it can be very hard to get out.

But also it's quite important to remember they've determined he's a danger to society because he won't stop hacking. If that's the bar they're testing for, maybe it's a long wait in store.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago

The judge said they confined him because he said he'd do it again. Not because of violent outbursts, which without further information do not rise to the level of involuntary commitment.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

bro they lost a whole 10 million. (this is strong sarcasm).

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

The horror!

[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (11 children)

Sounds like he had serious issues in life and wouldn't likely be able to hold a job or complete a scholarship. Not to mention he's ruined any form of trust you would need to be a security consultant.

A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he "continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated."

The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking

This doesn't sound like a kid that accidentally found some loopholes in a website and got lost down a rabbit hole. Instead it sounds like he deliberately knew what he was doing was wrong but didn't give a shit and was quite happy to blackmail users why threatening to reveal their personal data he had stolen.

Let's hope they can reform him over time, poor kid.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

I agree with most of what you said, but what the hell does it have to do with capitalism? He committed a crime and this is the justice system at work. Capitalism is irrelevant. I think a diversion program would have been more appropriate. He obviously has talent and needs to be redirected to apply it in more constructive ways that are legal.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

Unless I’m missing something this seems like a huge fucking overreaction and maybe get this guy some behavioral therapy or whatever. He’s incredibly talented and it would be a damn shame to waste that in a hospital. I’m guessing he’ll get a chance to be released, but some rehabilitation would go a long way and I don’t think his life should waste away in a hospital prison

[–] [email protected] 69 points 10 months ago (1 children)

He committed the ultimate crime, though: stealing from rich people. And he even had the effrontery not to be rich himself while doing it.

That's what they're punishing here.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not everyone needs or has room for huge displays. For those ppl monitors work great. https://bluewhatsap.com/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage.

A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he "continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated."

I'm assuming that's why. Hopefully they can put his mind to good use because he seems to be talented and is clearly motivated.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Oh no. He's a hardened cyber criminal. We'd better zombify him in a mental hospital for the rest of his life! The world just isn't safe otherwise!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago

But rehabilitation costs money, money that could go to private prisons instead

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

Rockstar should absolutely just hire this kid as a whitehat instead.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This sounds all impressive, and MacGyver level. But I need more info. Did he just cast his phone screen to the TV so he could see better while he used ssh or ftp in to a poorly secured port at Rockstar or did he do some crazy shit.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, a phone is literally a portable computer. It's like saying he made a bomb using nothing but a hairclip, a rubber band, and a grenade.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

To most people though it's still the equivalent because they don't know any better.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that is about what happened. According to the BBC, he had purchased a keyboard, mouse and Fire TV stick to "connect to cloud services":

In a "flagrant disregard for his bail conditions", jurors were told that police found an Amazon Fire Stick in his hotel TV allowing him to connect to cloud computing services with a newly purchased smart phone, keyboard and mouse.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66549159

Naturally, almost all "news" sources cook up a headline like "hack carried out with only an Amazon Fire Stick". Ugh.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Right, lol, so the fellow could have just connected to a free cloud VM running Kali and run some scripts, or more likely got access to Rockstar cloud services by social engineering a password out of someone. Riveting stuff, hah

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

That is fucking wild

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That's the strangest photo for such an article

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

That's him carrying out a phishing attack.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

It's either AI or someone who stopped caring about their job. :)

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The gang's attacks on tech giants (...)he remained a high risk to the public.

So tech giants are part of the public ?!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

Corporations are people, too! Just ask them…

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago

Next week : Hospital computers have been hacked from inside !

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his acute autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts - not if he did so with criminal intent.

Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.

He broke into the company's internal Slack messaging system to declare "if Rockstar does not contact me on Telegram within 24 hours I will start releasing the source code".

He worked with Kurtaj and other members of Lapsus$ to hack tech giant Nvidia and phone company BT/EE and steal data before demanding a four million dollar ransom, which was not paid.

The gang - thought to mostly be teenagers - used con-man like tricks as well as computer hacking to gain access to multinational corporations such as Microsoft, the technology giant and digital banking group Revolut.

During their spree, the hackers regularly celebrated their crimes publicly and taunted victims on the social network app Telegram in English and Portuguese.


The original article contains 710 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Wtf is "acute autism"? I don't think it works like that lol.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Fuck, if only there was some kind of hackers organization a la watch dog that would free him and let him go on a rampage mode on these assholes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Hackers 2: electric hackaloo

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Was this from the 2023 leak? Or the glorious 1 hour of video leak?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I guess the article title has been changed, now it says "indefinite hospital order" which, as far as I understand, means reevaluation every 6 months until he's deemed "safe" to society.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

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