It was only last week that the upcoming GTA 6 suffered a massive leak, with lots of test build screens and videos making their way online. Uber, which also suffered a breach of its own, identified the hacker as one that is linked to Lapsus$. Said individual is believed to be responsible for both incidents. But now it looks like said hacker is in UK police custody.
The London City Police tweets that they have arrested a 17-year old in Oxfordshire on suspicion of hacking. According to freelance journalist Matthew Keys, the arrest was done “in concert with an investigation conducted by the FBI”.
UPDATE: I've confirmed the 17-year-old arrested in Oxfordshire for the cyber attack on Rockstar and Uber is the same teenager that was arrested earlier this year for hacking Microsoft and Nvidia. The teen associates with a group called "Lapsus$." Additional arrests expected.
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) September 24, 2022
In a follow-up tweet Keys says that the teenager is the same one that was arrested before for hacking Microsoft and Nvidia. This adds up with Uber’s claim that the hacker is affiliated with Lapsus$, the group which claimed responsibility for those attacks. Earlier this year, London police arrested seven individuals believed to be affiliated with the group. Reports from that time indicated that the mastermind was an Oxford-based teenager, with the other six offenders aged between 16 and 21.
Connecting the dots further is another tweet by the London City Police, announcing that the teenager in question is being charged in breach of bail, in addition to hacking offenses. Which ties up with the reports of his prior arrest.
Teenager charged with breach of bail and computer misuse offences pic.twitter.com/8rQnsPblIL
— City of London Police (@CityPolice) September 24, 2022
With that in mind, it’s probably not very surprising that the hacker was caught so quickly. Going on another hacking escapade while being on bail for being caught in a previous hack just earlier this year didn’t seem like the smartest thing to do. One would have thought that laying low until at least the dust of the previous hack have settled would have been the much better thing to do. Especially of one’s next target was one as big as the upcoming game as huge as GTA 6.
(Source: Matthew Keys, London City Police, via Ars Technica)
