UK police arrest teenager suspected of Uber, GTA 6 hacks • TechCrunch

Police in London have confirmed a 17-year-old teenager, who’s suspected of involvement in high-profile breaches at trip hailing big Uber and Rockstar Video games, has been charged with a number of counts of laptop misuse and breaches of bail.

The suspect, whose title was not launched resulting from U.Okay. reporting restrictions on figuring out non-adults, was arrested in Oxfordshire on September 22 as a part of an investigation by the Metropolis of London Police, which primarily focuses on monetary crimes, and supported by the U.Okay.’s Nationwide Crime Company.

“The Metropolis of London Police arrested a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire [on September 22] on suspicion of hacking, as a part of an investigation supported by the Nationwide Crime Company’s (NCA) Nationwide Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU),” mentioned Detective Inspector Michael O’Sullivan from the Metropolis of London Police’s Cyber Crime Unit. “He has been charged in reference to this investigation and stays in police custody.”

The police declined to say what incident {the teenager}’s arrest was in reference to.

Uber mentioned final week that it believes a hacker affiliated with the Lapsus$ hacking group was accountable for its current cyberattack, which compelled the corporate to take a number of of its inside instruments offline whereas it expelled the hacker from its community. The transportation big mentioned its breach could have been carried out by the identical hacker that additionally hacked Rockstar Video games, the online game writer behind the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, which resulted within the launch of dozens of movies containing unreleased footage and gameplay.

A number of posts on GTAForums, a web-based fan discussion board for the Grand Theft Auto sequence, from a consumer who goes by the deal with “teapotuberhacker,” claimed to be the identical particular person accountable for Uber’s breach.

Whereas {the teenager}’s id stays unknown — and certain will for a lot of months — the newest expenses are believed to be linked to earlier arrests in March, which noticed the Metropolis of London Police arrest seven folks between the ages of 16 and 21 for suspected connections to the Lapsus$ hacking group. Lapsus$ was blamed for breaches at Okta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Samsung earlier this 12 months.

A number of of the arrested people have been launched on bail, topic to sure circumstances.

On the time, Bloomberg reported {that a} then-16-year-old teenager based mostly in Oxfordshire, U.Okay. was suspected of being the mastermind of the Lapsus$ hacking group. 4 researchers investigating the gang’s current hacks mentioned they believed {the teenager}, who makes use of the net moniker “White” or “Breachbase,” was a number one determine in Lapsus$. Bloomberg tracked down the suspected hacker after his private info was doxxed on-line, allegedly by rival hackers.