Arion Kurtaj, the hacker behind the damaging GTA 6 leaks, has officially been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order according to a new report from BBC.
The hacker revealed a variety of massive leaks for the anticipated GTA sequel, including videos, images and code. The crime ultimately cost the victims millions of dollars.
With the Lapsus$ gang, Kurtaj also hacked other entities, such as Uber and Nvidia.
Kurtaj, an 18-year-old with autism, also openly admitted that they would only continue to commit crimes if they went free.
Instead, Kurtaj will now be moved to a secure hospital for life. They have also been sentenced to an 18-month long Youth Rehabilitation Order with “intense supervision and a ban on using VPNs online”.
Kurtaj’s defense team reportedly argued that the crimes “had not caused serious harm to the game developer”.
They pointed to the enormous success of the record-breaking trailer, which even leaked online itself. However, this did not ultimately appear to sway the sentencing from Her Honour Judge Lees.
Given the sentencing conditions, hopefully Kurtaj will not be able to accomplish any further damage and will receive the treatment they need. It’s unclear at this time when circumstances could change.
Fans of GTA 6 continue to support the developers following the devastating hack. Ideally, the creatives will be able to stay on track. However, it may still cause delays, and other criminals could potentially replicate Kurtaj’s methods.
The crimes have even posed new questions for the industry workplace, such as work-from-home options.
The hack exposed vulnerabilities that dev teams must now consider for future game development. This includes using Slack, which is a popular and commonplace platform for workplace communication.
For more on the latest leaks in the gaming industry, you can read about the recent ransomware attack that targeted Insomniac Games.
