London police have confirmed that a seventeen-year-old boy suspected of being involved in high-profile breaches such as ride-hailing giant Uber and Rockstar Games has been charged with multiple computer mishandling and bail violations.
London police have not released the suspects’ identities. Police arrested the suspect in Oxfordshire on September 22 as part of an investigation by the City of London Police, which primarily focuses on financial crimes and is supported by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency.
Detective Inspector Michael O’Sullivan from the City of London Police’s Cyber Crime Unit said that “The 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’s (NCA) National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU).”
The police have refused to reveal what incident the teenager’s arrest was in connection with.
Uber said last week that it believes a hacker affiliated with the Lapsus$ hacking group was responsible for its recent cyberattack, which forced the company to take several of its internal tools offline. At the same time, it expelled the hacker from its network.
The transportation giant said its violation might have been carried out by the same hacker that also hacked Rockstar Games, the video game publisher behind the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, which resulted in the release of dozens of unreleased video footage and gameplay.
Several posts on GTAForums, an online fan forum for the Grand Theft Auto series, from a user who goes by the handle “teapotuberhacker” claimed to be the same person responsible for Uber’s breach.
Several arrested individuals were released on bail, subject to certain conditions.
At the time, Bloomberg reported that a then-16-year-old teenager based in Oxfordshire, U.K., was suspected of being the mastermind of the Lapsus$ hacking group.
Four researchers who are investigating the gang’s recent hacks said they believed the teenager, who uses the online moniker “White” or “Breachbase,” was a foremost figure in Lapsus$. Bloomberg tracked down the suspected hacker after his personal information was doxxed online, allegedly by rival hackers.
