In September 2022, a massive hacker attack shook the gaming industry – was affected Grand Theft Auto-Developer Rockstar Games. As is now known, hackers from the notorious Lapsus$ group had the source code GTA 5 and GTA 6 get your hands on.
In addition, at least 90 video clips are said to have been stolen. Numerous early builds of the game have been leaked in recent months. According to Rockstar, it cost the company $5 million and thousands of hours of work to develop.
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The 18-year-old Lapsus$ hacker Arion Kurtaj, who was probably primarily responsible for the Rockstar attack, was just before Christmas sentenced to an indefinite hospital stay been. Kurtaj, who comes from Oxford, is said to be autistic and, according to the court, ready to hack companies again at any time.
Kurtaj is said to have carried out the Rockstar hack while he was in police custody in a hotel for attacks on Nvidia and the British telecommunications company BT/EE. Because his laptop was confiscated, Kurtaj hacked into Rockstar’s internal systems using an Amazon Firestick, the hotel television and a cell phone.
Apparently as a direct reaction to Kurtaj’s conviction, his colleagues have now GTA 5-Source code released – on Christmas Eve, as Bleeping Computer reports. Links to the download were shared on numerous channels, including Discord and a Telegram channel.
The Telegram channel, on which data stolen from Rockstar Game had previously been published, belongs to a user who calls himself “Phil”. Among other things, a screenshot of a folder was posted there to show the authenticity of the material.
To what extent “Phil” was actually in possession of the code and whether the published files were really the real thing GTA 5source code cannot currently be verified. Rockstar Games has not yet responded to a corresponding request.
All that is known is that Kurtaj tried to blackmail Rockstar Games last year. Later he is said to have tried GTA 5Code for sale – for at least $10,000.
The Lapsus$ group is associated with attacks on Uber, Microsoft, Rockstar Games, Nvidia, T-Mobile, Ubisoft, Vodafone and Samsung, among others. Some members are now said to be active in a hacking collective called Scattered Spider.
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Like Lapsus$ before them, they use tactics such as social engineering, phishing or SIM card swapping attacks. The sophisticated hacking tactics had recently been analyzed by security authorities – not least in order to be able to publish appropriate warnings and reminders to be careful.
