UK police arrest 17 year-old hacker who is reportedly involved in GTA 6 leaks

London police have arrested a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire as part of an ongoing police investigation on the recent hack on Rockstar Studios.

On September 23, the City of London Police announced that, as part of an investigation backed by the National Crime Agency, they had detained a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire on suspicion of hacking.

 

The arrest is allegedly tied to the recent attack on Rockstar Games, the consequent historic leak of GTA 6 materials, and maybe even last week’s cyber infiltration of Uber, according to journalist Matthew Keys’ sources. There is no indication as of yet who the suspect is, neither by the police nor by the parent company, Take-Two Interactive, which owns Rockstar Games.

The teen has remained in detention since yesterday, the BBC reports, and no formal comment has been issued. A formal statement with additional information is anticipated to be released later today by the FBI and UK Police, who collaborated on the investigation.

In a video that was shared last weekend, the hacker revealed footage from a test build of the highly anticipated title. Rockstar, which usually keeps its development under wraps, confirmed the veracity of the leak on Monday. Fans don’t have to worry about the next Grand Theft Auto being internally delayed for years, as Rockstar Games also indicated that it doesn’t anticipate any long-term disruption to the development of the game.

The unprecedented leak contained 90 videos of a very early build of GTA VI. Fans also learned more about the two protagonists who are in charge of the game’s lengthy story mode. Additionally, it looks like a number of functional enhancements have been made, ranging from enhanced animations to a robbery system.

The hacker allegedly has ties with hacker group Lapsus$

Furthermore, the hacker group also threatened to make the source codes for Grand Theft Auto 5 and 6 available online if Take-Two officials didn’t engage in conversations with him. Later that week, the studio joined forces with ride-sharing company Uber, which had also been allegedly attacked by the same hacker group called Lapsus$. The FBI and the US Department of Justice collaborated with the two companies to resolve this issue.

The hacker, who went by the name “White,” is said to be a member of a group called Lupsus$, which is also suspected of carrying out high-profile data intrusions at important companies including Uber, Microsoft, Cisco, Samsung, Nvidia, and Okta. Lapsus$ has a pre-existing history with the teenage hacker. A 16-year-old boy was arrested this past March on suspicion of leading a multi-millionaire cyber-crime group though It is still unknown at this time whether that arrest is connected to this one.

Header: Rockstar Games