Two UK teenagers accused of being key members of the notorious hacking group Lapsus$, behind attacks on companies including Nvidia Corp., Rockstar Games Inc., and Uber Technologies Inc., were convicted of their crimes by a London jury Wednesday.
Arion Kurtaj, 18, and a 17-year-old male, who can’t be identified, were found to have carried out a number of offences including serious computer misuse, blackmail and fraud against BT Group Plc.’s EE network and Nvidia. Kurtaj was also separately accused of hacks into Uber, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto game, and fintech firm Revolut Ltd.
The Southwark Crown Court jury only needed to come to a decision on whether Kurtaj was liable for the crimes after he was found by the judge to be unfit to stand trial because of a complex medical condition. The jury found him liable for all 12 charges.
The 17-year-old was found guilty of hacking, fraud and blackmail against Nvidia and cleared over two other counts against EE. He had previously pleaded guilty to two charges relating to the BT hacks.
Lapsus$ are an international bunch of loosely connected online extortionists. The group confounded cybersecurity experts since it first appeared on a rampage of high-profile attacks between 2021 and 2022, causing millions of dollars of damages for its targets. The group appeared to hack for notoriety, financial gains and laughs, and used a number of techniques including pretending to be legitimate members of the firm's staff to gain access to online systems.
The prosecution said during the seven-week trial that the two teens together hacked into Nvidia and stole as much as one terabyte of data from the tech firm in order to demand a ransom payment. They were also accused of taking part in a wide-scale SIM swap fraud that drained EE customers' personal bank and cryptocurrency accounts.
Kurtaj — together with other unknown members of Lapsus$ — was found to have been responsible for stealing commercially sensitive code and video of the latest instalment of the Grand Theft Auto series while he was on bail for the previous hacks.
The 17-year-old will be sentenced later in the year. A judge will decide at a later date whether Kurtaj will be given a hospital or supervision order.
Lawyers for the two teenagers didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment after the verdicts.
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