Suspected Grand Theft Auto 6 hacker set for court
Charged with computer misuse, breaching bail conditions.
The 17-year-old from Oxfordshire believed to have been behind the recent gargantuan leak of Grand Theft Auto 6 was set to appear in court in London over the weekend.
The unamed teen has been charged with two counts of computer misuse, as well as two counts of breaching bail conditions.
These latter charges likely refer to the teen's previous run-in with police over hacking charges - when they were suspected of breaching both Microsoft and Samsung earlier in the year.
In a statement issued by the City of London Police on Saturday morning, detective inspector Michael O'Sullivan wrote:
"The City of London Police arrested a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire on Thursday 22nd September on suspicion of hacking, as part of an investigation supported by the National Crime Agency's (NCA) National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU). He has been charged in connection with this investigation and remains in police custody.
"The teenager has been charged with two counts of breach of bail conditions and two counts of computer misuse. He will appear at Highbury Corner Youth Court on Saturday 24th September 2022."
The individual in question is believed to be part of the hacking group named Lapsus$, which has been named in hacks of companies such as Microsoft, Samsung, Uber and Nvidia. Several members of the group are now being investigated by the FBI.
Rockstar has only commented to confirm it suffered a "network intrusion" which had led to the leaked information being taken from its servers.
The GTA maker said it was "extremely disappointed", but that there would be no "long-term effect" on development. No live services, such as Grand Theft Auto Online, were interrupted.
In March 2022, BBC News reported on the hacker teen - then just 16 years old - being arrested for the first time. It's from this occasion that the bail conditions, which have now allegedly been breached, appear to stem.
At the time, the teen's father told BBC News he would try and stop his child from going on computers.