Teenage hacker Lapsus$ who couldn't stop hacking was sentenced to life in hospital

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Lapsus$, an 18-year-old hacker who played an important role in leaking footage of Grand Theft Auto VI, has been sentenced to life in prison. A British judge ruled on Thursday that Arion Kurtaj posed a high risk to the public because he still wanted to commit cyber crimes.

In August, a London jury found that Kurtaj conducted cyberattacks against Rockstar Games, the developer of GTAVI, and other companies, including Uber and NVIDIA. However, because Kurtaj was autistic and was deemed unfit to stand trial, the jury was asked to determine whether he committed the acts in question, rather than whether he had criminal intent.

At a hearing on Thursday, the court heard that Kurtaj "had a tendency to be violent while in custody, with dozens of reports of injury to people or damage to property," the BBC reported. The mental health evaluation also found that Kurtaj "continued to express an intention to return to cybercrime as soon as possible". As a result, he must remain in a hospital prison for the rest of his life unless doctors determine he is no longer dangerous.

In September last year, Kurtaj leaked 90 "GTAVI" game videos while on bail for hacking into NVIDIA and British telecom operator BT/EE. According to a separate BBC report, although Kurtaj was staying in a police-protected hotel during this period, he still managed to attack Rockstar Games using an Amazon FireStick in the room and a "newly purchased smartphone, keyboard and mouse." After the incident, Kurtaj was arrested again.

Another 17-year-old linked to Lapsus$ was sentenced to 18 months in the community (known as a Youth Rehabilitation Order) and banned from using VPNs.

The official trailer for GTAVI was released earlier this month, racking up hundreds of millions of views even after Kurtaj leaked numerous videos and the trailer was released prematurely on X (formerly Twitter). While Kurtaj's defense attorney asked the judge to consider the trailer's success when sentencing, the BBC said the judge believed Lapsus$ harmed real companies and people. Rockstar Games said it spent $5 million recovering from the attack.