Report: UK authorities have arrested a teenager linked to the GTA VI leak

Thursday night’s arrest of a 17-year-old in the UK may have led to the arrest of one of the biggest video game leakers in recent history.

London police confirm they have arrested a suspect in Oxford Channel on social media Regularly used for police arrest updates, it clarifies the age of the suspect, a vague charge of “suspicion of hacking”, and that the investigation was coordinated with the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) specifically the National Cybercrime Unit.

This accusation followed hours later Reporting by freelance US journalist Matthew Keys Assuming that the arrest centered directly The recent theft and distribution of unreleased assets from British video game studio Rockstar North. This report cites sources who claim that the FBI was involved in this investigation and that the data seized also included fragments of a massive Uber-related breach. Keys’ report, at press time, has not been confirmed by the larger newsrooms in the United States or the United Kingdom.

$ Lapsus . doubts

The game leak in question has been among the most notable in recent history, essentially containing The world premiere of the highly anticipated video game Grand Theft Auto VI. Until this week’s leak, fans of the series left rumors and rumors about its possible location (a Miami-like city similar to Vice City) and its protagonists (a pair of “Bonnie and Clyde” heroes, including the first playable female mainline game). GT Game). These two rumors were confirmed by a leak, which Rockstar eventually confirmed to be legit and sourced from a 3-year-old copy of the game.

Before Thursday’s arrest, it was GTA VI The dropout from the game originally claimed his involvement in Huge recent Uber data breachalso – and Uber has publicly blamed hacking group Lapsus$ collective for this intrusion. Previously, at least one teenage boy from Oxford has been linked to Lapsus $by . hacking efforts BBC report. The authenticity of this report was not confirmed by UK authorities at the time, due to privacy rules regarding underage suspects. Thus, while GTA VI The leak could be linked to the $Lapsus effort, and this connection remains unconfirmed at press time.

Dan Godin from Ars Technica mentioned earlier Hacking efforts by Lapsus$ as chronicled by members on their official Telegram chat channels. Many of the group’s methods, at least as publicly disclosed, have taken advantage of weaknesses in “two-factor” standard multi-factor authentication systems – which typically revolve around less secure backup login options that an attacker can exploit. The GTA VI The leak previously suggested that they gained unauthorized access to Rockstar’s source code by accessing the company’s Slack chat interface, but as of press time, it’s not clear if this is also about “MFA bombing” to trick an employee into accepting something like a phone Inadvertently the connection prompt.

Should this week’s Oxford arrest be related to GTA VI Leak, this timeline will be much faster than what we saw in another memorable European source code leak. German hacker Axel Gembe finally told the story of his fears After he hacked Valve’s computer systems to download the source code to it half life 2. That raid and subsequent arrest took place about eight months later The leak was originally reported.