Jury says UK teens were part of the hacking group behind a ‘Grand Theft Auto’ blackmail bid

LONDON: A British jury ruled on August 23 that two teenagers were part of a hacking and blackmail campaign against technology companies, including the maker of the Grand Theft Auto game series.

Jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London found 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj guilty of 12 offenses, including computer hacking, blackmail, and fraud. A 17-year-old defendant, whose identity is protected due to his age, was convicted of fraud, blackmail, and carrying out an unauthorized act to impair the operation of a computer.

The trial, which lasted two months, had an unusual angle as Kurtaj was deemed unfit to stand trial by psychiatrists. The jury was therefore tasked with determining whether he had committed the alleged acts, without delivering a guilty or not guilty verdict.

Prosecutors argued that the two teenagers were key members of a group known as Lapsus$, which hacked the computer systems of various companies between 2021 and 2022. The targeted companies included communications provider BT, cellphone company EE, software company Nvidia, and games-maker Rockstar Games. The hackers then demanded substantial ransoms, threatening to release sensitive information if their demands were not met.

One of the specific threats made by the group was to leak the stolen source code for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto sequel on Internet forums, according to the indictment.

It remains unclear whether any of the hacked firms actually paid the ransoms.

The sentencing of both defendants will take place at a later date. – AP