A 17-year-old was arrested by the City of London police on Sep. 22, reportedly in connection with the hacks of Uber and Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games. The Desk reported that the teen is being held on charges including conspiracy to attack at least two different computer systems.
On Sep. 18, 90 videos of gameplay animation were leaked to GTA Forums by user “teapotuberhacker.” The videos totaled more than 50 hours of footage and seemed to confirm rumored gameplay details like the first-ever female single-player character and the game’s setting in a modern-day version of the franchise’s Vice City.
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The hacker appeared to be blackmailing Rockstar Games by threatening to release source code for GTA V and GTA VI, and attempting to sell the code back. The public release of that code would make GTA V vulnerable to hacks and exploitation and would do the same for GTA VI when it drops.
By Sep 19, Rockstar Games had issued takedown notices across social media and posted a tweet confirming that it had “suffered a network intrusion.” The developer added that it was “extremely disappointed” by the release of information but promised that work on the game would continue as planned.
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teapotuberhacker also claimed responsibility for an Uber data breach that occurred on Sep 15. According to the Guardian, both hacks were facilitated through breaching of the company’s Slack apps.
It’s believed that the 17-year-old is affiliated with “Laspus$,” a group of hackers suspected of involvement in other high-profile hacks at companies like Cisco, Microsoft, Okta, Samsung, and Uber since 2021. The arrest was the result of a joint investigation by the FBI and the UK’s Cyber Crime Unit.