Police in London have confirmed that a 17-year-old teenager, suspected of involvement in high-profile breaches of taxi giant Uber and Rockstar Games, has been charged with multiple counts of computer abuse and bail violations.
The suspect, whose name was not released due to UK reporting restrictions on identifying non-adults, was arrested in Oxfordshire on September 22 as part of an investigation by the City of London Police, which mainly focuses on financial crimes, and supported by the British police. National Crime Bureau.
City of London police arrested a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire [on September 22] on suspicion of hacking, as part of an investigation supported by the National Crime Agency (NCA) National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU),” said Detective Inspector Michael O’Sullivan of the City’s Cyber Crime Unit of London. “He has been charged in connection with this investigation and remains in police custody.”
Police would not say what incident the teen’s arrest was related to.
Uber said last week it believes a hacker affiliated with the Lapsus$ hacking group was responsible for the recent cyberattack, which forced the company to take several of its internal tools offline while driving the hacker off its network. The transportation giant said the breach may have been carried out by the same hacker who also hacked into Rockstar Games, the video game publisher behind the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, resulting in the release of dozens of videos featuring unreleased footage and gameplay.
Several posts on GTAForums, an online fan forum for the Grand Theft Auto series, from a user using “teapotuberhacker” claimed to be the same person responsible for the Uber breach.
While the teen’s identity remains unknown – and likely to continue for many months – the latest charges are believed to be related to earlier arrests in March, in which the City of London police arrested seven people, aged 16 to 21, on suspected charges. connections to the Lapsus$ hacking group. Lapsus$ was charged earlier this year with infringements at Okta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Samsung.
A number of those arrested have been released on bail under certain conditions.
At the time, Bloomberg reported that a then 16-year-old teenager from Oxfordshire, UK, was suspected of being the mastermind of the Lapsus$ hacking group. Four investigators investigating the gang’s recent hacks said they believed the teen, who goes by the online name “White” or “Breachbase,” was a leading figure in Lapsus$. Bloomberg tracked down the suspected hacker after his personal information was doxxed online, allegedly by rival hackers.