A teenager has been found responsible for a hacking spree in which victims’ savings were stolen and major companies, including the maker of the best-selling Grand Theft Auto video games, were blackmailed. Arion Kurtaj, 18, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons, were described by the prosecution as the “key players” in the LapsusS hacking group. Psychiatrists had assessed Kurtaj as unfit to stand trial so the role of the jury in his case was to decide whether he had committed the acts alleged against him. On Wednesday, following a two-month trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court plus nine hours and 19 minutes of deliberations, a jury unanimously found Kurtaj had carried out 12 offences in his spree of innovative hacks. These offences included six counts of carrying out an unauthorised act to impair the operation of a computer, three counts of blackmail, two fraud offences, and of failing to comply with a section 49 notice to disclose a key when he did not give up the password to his mobile phone when asked to by police. He tried to blackmail Rockstar Games by threatening to “leak the stolen source code for the Grand Theft Auto sequel onto internet forums”, the indictment stated. Kurtaj and the youth were also accused of hacking software company Nvidia in February 2022 before threatening to “release Nvidia Corporation’s intellectual property on to the web” if it did not pay them. The 17 year-old showed no emotion as he was found guilty of one count of fraud, a charge of blackmail and also of having carried out an unauthorised act to impair the operation of a computer. His mother wept uncontrollably after the verdicts were read out. Keep in mind Arion Kurtaj's psychological make-up, and in particular his psychological condition, his education or lack thereof - could he be the highly intelligent, competent genius that the prosecution set out at the beginning? Arion Kurtaj's defence counsel David Miller Prosecutors alleged Kurtaj and the 17-year-old, aided by unknown associates, hacked the servers and data files of broadband provider BT and mobile operator EE before demanding a four million US dollar ransom on August 1 2021. But the 17-year-old was found not guilty of a charge of have carried out an unauthorised act to impair the operation of a computer and a further charge of blackmail in relation to BT. He previously pleaded guilty to one offence under the Computer Misuse Act and one count of fraud. Neither defendant gave evidence during the jury trial. Sentencing dates at the same court have yet to be fixed for either defendant. This has been a complex and sensitive investigation involving a multi-agency response and there have been a number of challenges throughout the police investigation and judicial process Detective Superintendent Richard Waight A case management hearing has been set for Kurtaj on September 21, while it is hoped that a sentencing date may be fixed for the 17 year-old on November 9. During the trial, the court was told that Kurtaj had been living in care since the age of 14 and had been housed for a period in a Travelodge “for his own protection”. Kurtaj’s defence counsel David Miller described the youngster as “the most vulnerable of adolescents” who was now pitted against huge companies and corporations worth billions, who had unlimited funds and unlimited resources including the FBI, National Crime Agency, Interpol and City of London Police. During closing speeches, he told the jury: “Keep in mind Arion Kurtaj’s psychological make-up, and in particular his psychological condition, his education or lack thereof – could he be the highly intelligent, competent genius that the prosecution set out at the beginning?” After the verdicts, Detective Superintendent Richard Waight, of the City of London Police, said: “This has been a complex and sensitive investigation involving a multi-agency response and there have been a number of challenges throughout the police investigation and judicial process. “We thank the judge and jury for being patient throughout the trial, during deliberations and for the subsequent verdicts.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Social media firms should reimburse online purchase scam victims – Barclays Hozier would consider striking over AI threat to music industry Snapchat experiences ‘temporary outage’ as My AI chatbot posts own Story

One of the easiest Windows notebooks to carry around is Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Nano, with

The Memorial Day deals are rolling in and Walmart has plenty to choose from. Not

This content originally appeared on Mashable for a US audience and has been adapted for

By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK Elon Musk was ordered by a U.S. judge to face most of a

NFL star Trevon Diggs has added his name to the long list of people who have been caught liking very NSFW post on Twitter. The Dallas Cowboys cornerback attracted the attention of Twitter users after checking out explicit content, and it’s got people asking whether Diggs actually realises people can see his likes. The 24-year-old liked a post which featured a woman wearing an adult sex toy. It featured the caption: “Like = you’d suck it.” It’s not clear whether or not the post was liked accidentally or deliberately. Either way, it’s fair to say his interaction with the post sparked a big reaction online. He’s not the first and he won’t be the last to like Samuel L Jackson and Ted Cruz to name a few have been caught liking explicit posts before, with Jackson caught in 2022 and Cruz in 2017. Diggs is one of the star names for the Cowboys, having signed a five-year extension worth up to $100 million. He’s a two-time Pro Bowler with 17 interceptions in his three NFL seasons. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

'Mortal Kombat 1' gives players the option to have fatalities narrated.

By Chris Prentice NEW YORK A top U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official on Friday rejected criticism

A woman takes time off work just to play video games and told her husband that for their marriage to work, he had to be a gaming enthusiast to.

TL;DR: As of June 30, get the All-in-One Adobe Creative Cloud Suite Certification Course Bundle

LONDON & BERGEN, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 13, 2023--

Sarah Brady and Jonah Hill were in a relationship prior to their breakup in 2022 but were very private