A 17-year-old has been arrested in Oxfordshire by the police in the UK for allegedly hacking into the systems of Rockstar Games, a video game company, and downloading data that was intended to be kept from the public until they were ready to be released on the company's own terms.
The Grand Theft Auto series is one of the biggest franchises in the gaming world, which is why the leak of footage from a test build of the game has gotten so much attention. Rockstar Games have confirmed this via Twitter by expressing their disappointment on the matter.
As mentioned in an article from Engadget, researchers and hackers have identified the 17-year-old to have ties with a notorious group of hackers called "Lapsus$", which has targeted other well-known companies like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and Okta.
Matthew Keys said in a tweet, "Arrest of 17-year-old by police in the United Kingdom over hack of Rockstar and possibly Uber was done in concert with an investigation conducted by the FBI, according to a source with knowledge of the matter."
According to his law enforcement source, the investigation is still open and additional suspects may be arrested in the coming days. The 17-year-old remains in police custody.
UPDATE: Arrest of 17-year-old by police in the United Kingdom over hack of Rockstar and possibly Uber was done in concert with an investigation conducted by the FBI, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) September 23, 2022
How Will It Affect Rockstar Games' Plans for Launch?
Rockstar Games said that they are not anticipating any disruption to their live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of their ongoing projects.
However, there are still concerns based on Gizmodo's article that the hacker claims to also have stolen the source for GTA V and GTA VI. The hacker posted partial screenshots of the code and has threatened to release the rest of it.
Vice president of software production at the video game design school Digipen, Ben Ellinger, said that depending on the code they have managed to acquire, it could create a problem for Rockstar Games.
If the hacker managed to steal the server-side code, which manages the gameplay itself, the game may be susceptible to hackers being able to cheat seeing as the said code would allow them to see the game functions which they could eventually tweak and use to cheat within the game.
This may cause Rockstar Games to reevaluate their plans for the future of GTA VI by thinking of ways to evade possible infiltrations which in turn will delay the release.
How Will The Hack Affect Rockstar Games?
Surely, the leak has caused the company damage, but it being one of the biggest publishers in the video game industry with games like the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises, it would be a minor inconvenience, to say the least.
Rockstar games will eventually rise out of the issue, especially after the release of the much-anticipated game, Grand Theft Auto VI. "People are still going to be impressed as hell, they are still going to make billions of dollars," says Bellinger to Gizmodo.
