no mourners. no funerals

genuinely feels like this sums up so many online interactions

OpenAI scraped the entire web. All of which had been a labor of love from humans. Wikipedia is the backbone of a lot of LLMs, and that was volunteer human labor. They stole it and now they're selling it back to us.

Uber is a fucking shell game of a company designed to leech investor capital and output bootleg cabs.

Nvidia posted a profit in 2023 of $4.37 billion. This is like someone stealing less than a penny from me.

And they lock this kid in a prison hospital for LIFE?

Here’s the link:

And here are a few other snippets from it:

“The judge said Kurtaj's skills and desire to commit cyber-crime meant he remained a high risk to the public.

He will remain at a secure hospital for life unless doctors deem him no longer a danger.

The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage.

Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his severe autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts - not if he did so with criminal intent.

A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he "continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated."

The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack.”

“In sentencing hearings, Kurtaj's defence team argued that the success of the game's trailer indicated that Kurtaj's hack had not caused serious harm to the game developer and asked that this be factored into the sentencing.

But Her Honour Judge Lees said that there were real victims and real harm caused from his other multiple hacks on individuals and the companies he attacked with Lapsus$.”

“Another Lapsus$ member, who is 17 and cannot be named because of his age, was found guilty in the same trial, which lasted six weeks at Southwark Crown Court.

He worked with Kurtaj and other members of Lapsus$ to hack tech giant Nvidia and phone company BT/EE and steal data before demanding a four million dollar ransom, which was not paid.

They also stole directly from individuals through their cryptocurrency wallets.

The 17-year-old was sentenced to an 18 month long Youth Rehabilitation Order, including intense supervision and a ban on using VPNs online.

As well as hacking offences the boy was sentenced for what the judge described as "unpleasant and frightening pattern of stalking and harassment" of two young women.”

Here is an earlier article from before sentencing with a few other details:

And some snippets:

“No ransom was paid but the court heard that the 17-year-old and Kurtaj used stolen SIM details from five victims to steal a total of nearly £100,000 from their cryptocurrency accounts which were secured by their compromised mobile phone SIM identities.”

“Shortly before his arrest, Kurtaj was "doxxed" by rival hackers who posted his and his families contact details online along with pictures and videos of the keen fisherman from social media.

Kurtaj was moved into a Travelodge hotel in Bicester for his safety and given strict bail conditions including a ban from going on the internet.

But Kurtaj carried on hacking.”

“Prosecution lead barrister Kevin Barry said that Kurtaj and his co-conspirators repeatedly showed a "juvenile desire to stick two fingers up to those they are attacking".

Once inside a company's computer network, the hackers often left offensive messages on Slack and Microsoft Teams as they attempted to blackmail staff.

The gang's actions were often erratic with motives apparently swinging from notoriety, financial gain or amusement.”

So, what happened here is an 18-year-old extorted, blackmailed and stole via hacking. He annoyed rivals enough that they endangered him and those around him, then while in protective custody he continued his criminal activity. He was also violent, causing injury and damage. It was determined that he may not be mentally capable of criminal intent, but he also has no intention of stopping. He is being held in a medical facility until he’s no longer a danger. His accomplice was given a rehabilitation order, but is also a stalker and harasser.

He has not been locked up for hacking GTA VI, except in that the hack proves a pattern of behaviour. The judge specifically said judgement was more from other hacks. He is a thief and extortionist who behaves violently, endangers those around him, and currently is in a medical state where it seems he is not going to stop.

And if you’re thinking it’s just big companies who were the victims? Imagine being one of the twenty-six thousand EE customers receiving this: