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Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

#71

Post by CaptainOfCoit »

Nextgrid wrote: post #48
qeternity wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not life in prison. He’s being confined to a mental institution due to severe autism. It’s unlikely that he can be rehabilitated and would remain a cyber security threat to society if released in the future. This is hardly revenge.

This guy is as much of a "cyber security threat" as your typical socially-awkward gamer teenager, of which we have plenty of. Every internet-connected server out there constantly gets probed by bots/tools often operated by similar people and nothing is ever done about it. This guy's crime wasn't that he was hacking/phishing/stalking or the general obnoxious behavior that often comes with this kind of person - this is…

> This guy is as much of a "cyber security threat" as your typical socially-awkward gamer teenager, of which we have plenty of

The following quote seems to indicate that the skills of this individual is much sharper than "typical socially-awkward gamer teenager":

> Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone

Re: Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

#72

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

jvanderbot wrote: post #30

Did anyone here read TFA? He was apparently shown to be a member of a cyber "gang", and expressed zero remorse. In this case, a judge basically has to do something. > A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he "continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated." The guy was already on bail for another hack: > The jury was told that while…

The title of this post is manifestly wrong. Being locked up for an indefinite period is not the same as being locked up for life since he can be released at any time.

But having said that, being locked up "at His Majesty's pleasure" as this is called is s scary sentence, since you can indeed end up in prison for you whole life if you do not have the support of the relevant doctors.

The conspiracy theorists here should remember he was convicted by a jury and can appeal his sentence like anyone else. If that's insufficient come up with a better system.

Re: Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

#73

Post by throwaway743 »

dharmab wrote: post #43
Nextgrid wrote: post #15

Life in prison for non-violent crime clearly sounds like revenge and sour grapes. The big guys clearly don't appreciate having their insecurity being exposed this way (keep in mind none of these hacks required any significant technical skills), and too many people would lose face. Something had to be done, so here it is. The disparity of this punishment compared to what is usually given out for similar crimes (in the…

Did you read the article? > The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage.

How they define "violent", "injury", and "property damage" is very much important though. It could be as light as knocking a mug off a desk and breaking it or them accidentally tripping someone and causing them to get a minor bruise, or it could be to the extreme of assaulting someone or arson.

Curious to know what their definitions and their examples of this behavior are regarding this person.

Re: Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

#74

Post by switch007 »

nicklecompte wrote: post #53

BBC's actual headline: "Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order" The editorialized reframing of the headline is a bit subtle but still incredibly dishonest. An indefinite psychiatric order is simply not the same as a life sentence.

The BBC regularly updates headlines after publication (A/B testing for clicks) so it's possible it was the BBC, not the poster.

Re: Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

#76

Post by thomastjeffery »

jvanderbot wrote: post #30

Did anyone here read TFA? He was apparently shown to be a member of a cyber "gang", and expressed zero remorse. In this case, a judge basically has to do something. > A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he "continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated." The guy was already on bail for another hack: > The jury was told that while…

Yes, I read the article. It's full of expectations.

There is the expectation that someone should be punished severely for hacking a multi-billion dollar corporation.

There is the expectation that that punishment will result in them just never hacking again.

There is the expectation that a person who is arrested and threatened will respond with patience, and not with their own violence.

There is the expectation that the well-known symptoms of Autism will just magically disappear whenever they conflict with the above expectations. If not, it's the fault of the person with Autism, not whoever set impossible expectations.

---

All of these expectations have a common theme: they are leveled at this one person. He's a teenager with Autism! It doesn't matter: we have expectations, and they have to be met.

Fuck that. I have expectations of my own.

I expect that a justice system will actually try to meet people at their own level.

I expect that a justice system will attempt to resolve mental health with treatment instead of violence.

I expect that a multi-billion dollar company will respond to hacks with the only effective method there is: strengthening their own security. Anything else is just a waste of breath.

My expectations are not being met. There's not a damn thing I can do about it, either: I'm not the one with billions of dollars at my disposal.

Re: Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

#77

Post by mise_en_place »

jvanderbot wrote: post #30

Did anyone here read TFA? He was apparently shown to be a member of a cyber "gang", and expressed zero remorse. In this case, a judge basically has to do something. > A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he "continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated." The guy was already on bail for another hack: > The jury was told that while…

Not sure if I'd call that severe autism. That's psychopathic behavior, when you don't feel any remorse for your crimes.

Re: Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

#78

Post by Freak_NL »

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #66
imglorp wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone should hire him as a white hat. Maybe they have some kind of custodial guardianship where the employer can monitor him staying clean.

It's tough though, how do you know that they won't use those skills against you? The individual seems relatively unstable and violent, even saying during a sentencing hearing that they'll continue to do illegal breaches whenever they can. Would be great to have them on the "good" side, but would probably take a lot of energy and resources as well. Hopefully this story will have a somewhat happy ending, because it see…

He'd need a dedicated handler, and even then judging from the article's portrayal he seems like a hopelessly unmanageable type. He'd fit in with a modern-day A-team, come to think of it.

Re: Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

#79

Post by Nextgrid »

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #69

Seemingly this individual is highly skilled (in technology) yet managed to fail at opsec. Anyone know how police managed to find/grab him?

It doesn't look like any of these even tried opsec - which isn't surprising because such crimes committed against individuals or small companies effectively became decriminalized in the UK so opsec would just be a waste of time.

Their mistake was to think that embarrassing the establishment by breaching high-profile (Nvidia, etc), culturally-relevant companies (BT/EE) would be met with similar inaction.

Also, with regards to skill, keep in mind that the establishment has a huge interest in making the hacks sound much more advanced than they really were to minimize the embarrassment of the affected companies. It would look really bad if it was widely known that these companies were pwned with nothing more than basic phishing, bribery and social engineering, something anyone can do.

Re: Lapsus$: GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order

#80

Post by macNchz »

Nextgrid wrote: post #48
qeternity wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not life in prison. He’s being confined to a mental institution due to severe autism. It’s unlikely that he can be rehabilitated and would remain a cyber security threat to society if released in the future. This is hardly revenge.

This guy is as much of a "cyber security threat" as your typical socially-awkward gamer teenager, of which we have plenty of. Every internet-connected server out there constantly gets probed by bots/tools often operated by similar people and nothing is ever done about it. This guy's crime wasn't that he was hacking/phishing/stalking or the general obnoxious behavior that often comes with this kind of person - this is…

I don't see how the grand-scale theft and extortion run by Lapsus$ is remotely comparable to the behavior of a "typical socially awkward gamer teenager", even a particularly unethical one.
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