5 ms·

Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

38 points by magoghm 3y ago

hd4 3y ago
> The judge said Kurtaj's skills and desire to commit cyber crime meant he remained a high risk to corporations Fixed
- rwmj 3y ago
  The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage. Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his acute autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts - not if he did so with criminal intent.
bennylava 3y ago
[dead]
alecsm 3y ago
There's already an ongoing thread about it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38723309 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38723309
AISnakeOil 3y ago
"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." I'm sorry WHAT?! He hacked Rockstar from a firestick?
- rwmj 3y ago
  They run Android so you should be able to get a shell fairly easily.
- kotaKat 3y ago
  Go down to market, grab cheap prepaid phone, Fire Stick, and a Bluetooth keyboard, and you're off to the desktop races. Pivot in from literally any remote desktop, shell, anything.
joecool1029 3y ago
>It concluded that Lapsus$ "made clear just how easy it was for its members (juveniles, in some instances) to infiltrate well-defended organisations". So is it style guidelines for BBC to rewrite "quotes" using UK spelling? Here's the report it was lifted from: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/CSRB_Lapsus%24_508c.pdf https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/CSRB_Lapsus...
- hnbear 3y ago
  If the report was in another language they’d translate to British English. It’s not unreasonable to translate the US English to British English.
roomey 3y ago
A no doubt gifted person who was probably put through torture (as they would experience it) in a prison, now locked away for life because they lashed out. Big clap for all the big brains there who failed this guy
- saiya-jin 3y ago
  > He worked with Kurtaj and other members of Lapsus$ to hack tech giant Nvidia and phone company BT/EE and steal data before demanding a four million dollar ransom, which was not paid. > They also stole directly from individuals through their cryptocurrency wallets. Its not that easy to have sympathies with such an individual since these are not isolated instances but clear long term pattern, he may excel at one extremely narrow aspect of existence but rest is much less than stellar. The crimes he did may not mean much to you but clearly law says different, if you don't like it feel free to campaign for a change. Or would you have similar sentiments if he got enraged and somehow managed killed few people? Since your words would still apply.
  - roomey 3y ago
    You can have empathy with anyone, if you try.
    - saiya-jin 3y ago
      I reserve all of it for people trying hard to live good honest life but bad luck and misfortune happens. This is certainly not the case.
- golergka 3y ago
  > dozens of reports of injury or property damage That doesn't sound as just "lashing out".
  - ghusto 3y ago
    That sounds _exactly_ like an autistic person lashing out.
juujian 3y ago
This is tragic -- I bet this kid could make great contributions with some support. > The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage. > Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his acute autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts - not if he did so with criminal intent.
- woleium 3y ago
  Hopefully he will get the right sort of help.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  Or.... He is a good actor and has decided that being locked in a mental hospital is better than prison
  - alasdair_ 3y ago
    For life? Probably not.
    - number6 3y ago
      You could try to get healed; but he should have read: One flew over the cuckoo's nest.
    - ChainOfFools 3y ago
      For sure. Sentencing guidelines and legal tests for criminality are usually very clearly drawn, even if the logic that brought them to conclusion may be flawed. You'll know when you're in and when you're out of their graces independently of any particular referees opinion, once the big decisions over your fate have been made they tend to be strongly deterministic. The guidelines for mental health and danger to oneself in that context are literally the subjective opinion of a handful of appointed decision- makers who may not all be working from strictly clinical diagnostic criteria (or even training) , but who all do have every motivation to err on the side of caution at your expense, and to do so indefinitely.
manicennui 3y ago
"The gang's attacks on tech giants including Uber, Nvidia and Rockstar Games cost the firms nearly $10m." Were these actual costs or typical made up bullshit?
- jamestimmins 3y ago
  Hacks incur legal costs and engineering time to mitigate (even if just to do postmortems) which are both extremely expensive resources. $10 million doesn't seem at all unreasonable for multiple Fortune 500 firms getting breached.
  - anigbrowl 3y ago
    That's the corporate equivalent of losing $10.
  - ghusto 3y ago
    You’re not wrong, but it’s worth emphasising “fortune 500”, because it’s their own fault it costs them that much. Would be a negligible fraction of that for normal companies.
jeffwask 3y ago
This seems an extreme defense of capitalism.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38723309 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38723309

38 points by magoghm 3y ago

hd4 3y ago

> The judge said Kurtaj's skills and desire to commit cyber crime meant he remained a high risk to corporations Fixed

rwmj 3y ago
The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage. Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his acute autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts - not if he did so with criminal intent.

bennylava 3y ago

[dead]

alecsm 3y ago

There's already an ongoing thread about it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38723309 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38723309

AISnakeOil 3y ago

"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." I'm sorry WHAT?! He hacked Rockstar from a firestick?

rwmj 3y ago
They run Android so you should be able to get a shell fairly easily.
kotaKat 3y ago
Go down to market, grab cheap prepaid phone, Fire Stick, and a Bluetooth keyboard, and you're off to the desktop races. Pivot in from literally any remote desktop, shell, anything.

joecool1029 3y ago

>It concluded that Lapsus$ "made clear just how easy it was for its members (juveniles, in some instances) to infiltrate well-defended organisations". So is it style guidelines for BBC to rewrite "quotes" using UK spelling? Here's the report it was lifted from: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/CSRB_Lapsus%24_508c.pdf https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/CSRB_Lapsus...

hnbear 3y ago
If the report was in another language they’d translate to British English. It’s not unreasonable to translate the US English to British English.

roomey 3y ago

A no doubt gifted person who was probably put through torture (as they would experience it) in a prison, now locked away for life because they lashed out. Big clap for all the big brains there who failed this guy

saiya-jin 3y ago
> He worked with Kurtaj and other members of Lapsus$ to hack tech giant Nvidia and phone company BT/EE and steal data before demanding a four million dollar ransom, which was not paid. > They also stole directly from individuals through their cryptocurrency wallets. Its not that easy to have sympathies with such an individual since these are not isolated instances but clear long term pattern, he may excel at one extremely narrow aspect of existence but rest is much less than stellar. The crimes he did may not mean much to you but clearly law says different, if you don't like it feel free to campaign for a change. Or would you have similar sentiments if he got enraged and somehow managed killed few people? Since your words would still apply.
- roomey 3y ago
  You can have empathy with anyone, if you try.
  - saiya-jin 3y ago
    I reserve all of it for people trying hard to live good honest life but bad luck and misfortune happens. This is certainly not the case.
golergka 3y ago
> dozens of reports of injury or property damage That doesn't sound as just "lashing out".
- ghusto 3y ago
  That sounds _exactly_ like an autistic person lashing out.

juujian 3y ago

This is tragic -- I bet this kid could make great contributions with some support. > The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage. > Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his acute autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts - not if he did so with criminal intent.

woleium 3y ago
Hopefully he will get the right sort of help.
londons_explore 3y ago
Or.... He is a good actor and has decided that being locked in a mental hospital is better than prison
- alasdair_ 3y ago
  For life? Probably not.
  - number6 3y ago
    You could try to get healed; but he should have read: One flew over the cuckoo's nest.
  - ChainOfFools 3y ago
    For sure. Sentencing guidelines and legal tests for criminality are usually very clearly drawn, even if the logic that brought them to conclusion may be flawed. You'll know when you're in and when you're out of their graces independently of any particular referees opinion, once the big decisions over your fate have been made they tend to be strongly deterministic. The guidelines for mental health and danger to oneself in that context are literally the subjective opinion of a handful of appointed decision- makers who may not all be working from strictly clinical diagnostic criteria (or even training) , but who all do have every motivation to err on the side of caution at your expense, and to do so indefinitely.

manicennui 3y ago

"The gang's attacks on tech giants including Uber, Nvidia and Rockstar Games cost the firms nearly $10m." Were these actual costs or typical made up bullshit?

jamestimmins 3y ago
Hacks incur legal costs and engineering time to mitigate (even if just to do postmortems) which are both extremely expensive resources. $10 million doesn't seem at all unreasonable for multiple Fortune 500 firms getting breached.
- anigbrowl 3y ago
  That's the corporate equivalent of losing $10.
- ghusto 3y ago
  You’re not wrong, but it’s worth emphasising “fortune 500”, because it’s their own fault it costs them that much. Would be a negligible fraction of that for normal companies.

jeffwask 3y ago

This seems an extreme defense of capitalism.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38723309 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38723309