Teen GTA VI hacker sentenced to life in a secure hospital
Teen GTA VI hacker sentenced to life in a secure hospital
The hack cost Rockstar Games $5 million.
The 18-year-old Lapsus$ hacker who played a critical role in leaking Grand Theft Auto VI footage has been sentenced to life inside a hospital prison, according to a report from the BBC. A British judge ruled on Thursday that Arion Kurtaj is a high risk to the public because he still wants to commit cybercrimes.
In August, a London jury found that Kurtaj carried out cyberattacks against GTA VI developer Rockstar Games and other companies, including Uber and Nvidia. However, since Kurtaj has autism and was deemed unfit to stand trial, the jury was asked to determine whether he committed the acts in question, not whether he did so with criminal intent.
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Life for this seems absolutely insane.
I don't think the kid will actually serve it out in prison though. The primary issue here seems to be that the kid is actively saying they will commit more crimes. No matter the crime, you can't really give a light sentence to someone telling you, in a court of law, that they will do it again.
The ideal would be that they rehabilitate him until he's able to be safely released with no fear of repeat offense, or at the very least, until the kid is smart enough to lie.
It's not prison, it's some sort of prison hospital. But still, life is the exact opposite end of the spectrum compared to a light sentence. Like you said, rehabilitation should be the goal, and imposing life sentences on 18 year olds is not how you make that happen.
He only got a life sentence because he made corporations look bad IMO. Not because of him saying he'd do it again.
I mean, he didn't even get a life sentence. That's in the headline, I know, but it's just not true.
He's in the hospital indefinitely, not sentenced to life. There's a big fat or clause that completely undermines the "life sentence".
He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.
I'm not really sure what anyone thinks WOULD be just and proper in this kind of situation. I don't know many details of this particular case, but if there has been due process that determines someone is unsafe to release into society because they lack social capacity, releasing them anyway hardly seems like justice.
I'd like to believe -- though I know it basically isn't true -- that the justice system exists for the sake of justice. That it is primarily concerned with making whole the victims and making sure the criminals are rehabilitated such that they can safely rejoin society and even contribute to it in the future. I think that's how the justice system should work in a fair and just world. But if you have someone who is actually incapable of rejoining society, what are you supposed to do?
If we want to focus on the awfulness of this situation, I don't think the sentence is the issue. I think the focus would need to be on whether or not the hospital treatment has any chance of being effective -- because if it doesn't, THAT'S the story that matters.
A British judge ruled on Thursday that Arion Kurtaj is a high risk to the public because he still wants to commit cybercrimes.
Right in the summary. He's not going to murder people. This is a huge over reach on the use of mental hospitals.
It's also right in the article that he was violent. That doesn't really matter though; what matters is whether he's competent to stand trial and whether it is reasonable to release him back to the regular justice system or general public.
I guess your point is that there's no safety hazard since his particular behavior isn't at least murder? Or maybe that cybercrime in particular is actually good and not a problem? It's not really a coherent framework to discuss these things either way.
Well yeah. A danger to the public generally refers to killing or maiming yourself or others. That's been the standard for a long time now.
And the judge said why they committed him. There's no need to go looking for more.
No no no, he's going to leak more GTA 6 if he gets out. That's super dangerous stuff that the public shouldn't see yet.
Who exactly was victimized here? Who was harmed and in what way? God the capitalist bootlicking is insane. Seriously arguing for taking away a neurodivergent person's agency because some game spoilers got released. Not a good look.
It’s not actually a life sentence, it’s a sentence until he is cured.
Cured of autism?
No, the desire/inability to not continue to commit crimes.
Nhs mental health services isn't going to do that.
No one gets "cured" of autism.
Not of autism damnit. His desire/inability not to continue to commit crimes.
Don’t try to twist me
I feel like just saying this is autism, is insulting to people with autism? The violent acts the article said he did can't just be attributed to autism.
Like the OP wants to compare this to law enforcement crimes where it's about what someone has done, whereas this is about medical hospitalization because of what someone is currently doing
Like he's an active, physical threat. The cybercrimes are very secondary to what is going on.
Yeah, I'm getting bothered by this too. My brother had a pretty bad case of autism, he suffered from hard-to-control anger issues, but he learned how to keep those outbursts from causing damage or harming the people around him.
Maybe this guy can learn to control himself, maybe he can't, autism is an extremely broad and varied condition. But either way, it's not unreasonable to keep him in a hospital until he's safe.
Are you autistic? Cause I am and nothing I said was or is insulting.
What is insulting is you somehow thinking you know anything about how difficult it is for people like us to live in a world where everyone tells us how we should live without first understanding who we are and how our brains work.
The so-called violence wasn't described in detail ... so it could mean they threw food at someone or banged a chair on the floor.
Cured of the desire to commit further crimes. Not cured of autism.
How exactly they'll determine that, I don't know.
Will probably wait until they're at least smart enough to lie about not wanting to commit more crimes. Maybe then they'll be mentally fit enough to stand trial, but I'm not sure.
No matter the crime, you can’t really give a light sentence to someone telling you, in a court of law, that they will do it again.
Dude's unfit to stand trial.
He's unfit to stand trial, but he's not unfit enough to continue to commit the crimes he's been committing.
Again, just because nobody else seems to be bringing it up, *he was already out on bail for cybercrimes when he hacked Rockstar. *
Dude's unfit to be loose in society. Doesn't leave a lot of options.
I dunno, he's seem to do pretty good things thus far.
But that's just my independent viewpoint.
Article says he's been breaking stuff and hurting people while in custody. This isn't just about GTA.
Good call. Life in a psyche ward.
Until he stops hurting people. Criminy, is nobody reading more than just the headline?
Nope
I couldn't care less about the stuff he's breaking (so far at least), it's moreso the breaking part that concerns me. Like, this doesn't sound like someone following a deeply held belief and breaking property as a way to fight corporations. It's someone having a temper tantrum.
Let's also remember he hacked Rockstar while out on bail for hacking other companies. He was already given a chance, and he committed another fucking crime.
During Thursday’s hearing, the court heard Kurtaj “had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage,” the BBC reports. A mental health assessment also found that Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.” He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.
Sounds like dude has some stuff to work out mentally
He has autism. It affects the brain in very specific ways for each individual, but in general Executive function is the first thing to go when in stressful situations. You know, emotional regulation and self control? And I also guarantee that the cops and guards were treating him like shit. They LOVE picking on disabled people. I have no doubt most of the charges and incidents were exacerbated by the people in charge.
The dude committed crimes while on bail. Autism doesn't excuse that, and even if it did, it's still a problem that needs to be dealt with.
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 and carried out his most infamous hack.
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.
Nothing is being trumped up, here. The kid is just brazen about this.
Ah so he's a Lemmy user.
I get that, have it as well. Been arrested for it as well.
This kid wasn't arrested for having autism. It was for brazenly commiting crimes, and even when he was released on bail, he committed even more crimes in police protection.
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 and carried out his most infamous hack.
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.
This is not some poor autistic kid that's getting picked on by cops, he's a highly capable hacker expressing a explicit intent to continue to break the law and cause harm to both individuals and corporations.
Never said he was getting picked by cops on or arrested for having autism.
the court heard that the 17-year-old and Kurtaj used stolen SIM details from five victims to steal a total of nearly £100,000 from their cryptocurrency accounts which were secured by their compromised mobile phone SIM identities.
He is a hacker and a thief that has a lot of work to do psychologically
Well, sure, but does that mean he should get a life sentence?
He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.
These sorts of sentences aren't really "life", they're "life until you're cured."
And just how does one get cured of autism?
You think he's been charged with autism? Most autistic people aren't a danger to the people around them. That's the problem here.
Being obtuse in no way advances your argument.
He's not being obtuse when you're the one making outlandish claims
ez more vaccines
If vaccines can cause autism, then if you use enough vaccines you can reverse it, right? /s
The hard part of it is that the system is so lame that they are probably going to do more damage to him in turn making him have to stay longer.
Indeed, but if we wait for everything to be perfect nothing will ever get done. Reforms of the system can continue alongside treatment.
I guess we'll have to just lock him up while we figure out some way of stopping him committing cybercrime. If only there were some way of preventing him from committing this crime that requires access to a computer to commit. I guess he'll just have to stay trapped in a phyche ward until society can figure this one out.
Sorry for being snarky and sarcastic, I know what you mean and agree with you. My sarcasm is directed more at the judges ruling and your comment is just what sparked me to write it.
It's not the cybercrime that he's in the mental hospital over. He's been physically violent as well.
Your wording is wrong. It's a medical life sentence. It would be cleared immediately on doctor approval.
No. But you also can't say I'm going to go straight back to commitmenting the exact same crime asap
A mental health assessment also found that Kurtaj "continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible."
Although he stayed at a hotel under police protection during this time, Kurtaj still managed to carry out an attack on Rockstar Games by using the room’s included Amazon Fire Stick and a “newly purchased smart phone, keyboard and mouse,” according to a separate BBC report. Kurtaj was arrested for the final time following the incident.
He already did it again, didn't realize this was the one who did it again while on bail.
Or the people handling him don't understand autism?
That's probably true for some of if not most of them
If he's unfit for trial doesn't he wait until he can? That is beyond unjust on every which side unless he is that level of fucked up. What is life like in an NCR-type deal hospital for life?
Is it like a decent group home or where is he being sent to exactly?
It sounds like he is that level of fucked up. Getting violent and breaking shit and literally saying "I'll fuckin do it again".
You might try reading the article you posted then, because it says very plainly:
He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.
A danger of commiting cyber crimes. You forgot that part. This could be solved with a probation officer and a restriction on technology use. Instead, he's in a mental hospital. This is ridiculous and a way to weaponize his disability as a warning to others.
Considering he hacked Rockstar because they put him in a hotel room with a land line phone and an Amazon Firestick while in custody for hacking, I'd say he has a serious mental issue here.
Yeah he's a fucking genius.
I think whoever left him alone with an Internet connection has the serious mental issue.
They did strip him of stuff, he just found the Fire Stick and bought the phone - while on bail for other cybercrimes. The point is he's determined to commit crimes. You can't let someone out free in society like this. Meeting up with a probation officer every now and then isn't good enough for this kind of person. It's a compulsion. He can't even mentally stand trial right now.
There are absolutely ways to do so. Hackers are kept in the public under those conditions all the time. This is a modern lynching to serve as an example.
Yes.. It's the same sentence criminally insane murderers get.
People pleading insanity and thinking 'they get away with it', has always made me laugh. You might get probation in 20 years but in an asylum, you have no sentence it's just a matter of if the doctors ever agree to release you.
Cybercrime destroys lives. It’s anti-commerce and it can absolutely ruin a small business. Who the victim was does not matter. He openly intends to do it again if ever released so section his ass.
"ruin a small business".
This is Rockstar. They make billions. All the hype is just free press for them, which is pro-commerce for them and the press.
Yeah, it destroys lives when it's taken out of proportion for a stupid leak vs. a life sentence. You ruin lives with your nonsense because a billion dollar company doesn't have decent cyber-security? GTA is completely full of script kiddies in every session. Maybe rockstar needs to get their act together instead of throwing people in jail for doing exactly what is required in game. Where you're a criminal that hacks tech companies to advance in the plot. In game, it kills people. In real life, nobody was hurt at all.
Rockstar isn't the only company he hacked and hacking isn't his only crime. Read the fucking article. The rest of your logic is just a mess. Doesn't matter how much security Rockstar has. You can't walk into a mansion and steal something just because the front door is unlocked. And your last point is just so fucking stupid. It's ok to hack Rockstar because they have hacking in their games? Jesus. I don't like or even play Rockstar games but you can't just commit crimes against them and think it's ok because they have a lot of money.
Anti-commerce? oh, no! Won’t anyone think of the multi billion dollar corporation?
Of all the arguments people made about the sentencing, this one is the stupidest
Maybe they should chop the hands off cyber criminals as a warning to other would be cybercriminals too. In fact, life is too easy for someone who hurts a company, we should just shoot them all immediately
And people are still going to play the game.
Worse, people will buy that game.
I mean... what is the alternative? He said he's going to continue hacking once he's free, so do you think 5 or 10 years in prison will do anything to deter him? It doesn't sound like it at all.
edit: plenty of downvotes, but nobody is suggesting what should be done instead?
Not sure why this is down voted.
Besides being aggressive and destructive, he declared he will not stop doing crime.
This is not some "hero vs corporations" feel-good story as people seem to think here.
I dunno why people think social engineering has no victims and is harmless. It's just not the case.