UK police arrest a teenager over hacking; reports link him to the Rockstar breach

City of London Police announced on September 23, 2022 that a 17-year-old had been arrested in Oxfordshire on suspicion of hacking. The police statement did not mention Rockstar; the connection to the breach Rockstar had confirmed that week came from a journalist's source.

For players, nothing about the game changed: this was a criminal case, and none of the reports we read carried a comment from Rockstar or Take-Two.

What the police said

The arrest took place on the evening of Thursday, September 22, and the teenager was still in custody, VGC reported. According to GamesRadar+, the police said a UK cybercrime unit was supporting the investigation. Over the weekend the force announced on X that it had charged him with computer misuse and with breaching his bail, a post GamesRadar+ reproduced. VGC later put the count at two charges of each kind.

How the Rockstar link emerged

Matthew Keys, a former Reuters journalist, cited a source who said the arrest related to the intrusion at Rockstar and possibly one at Uber, GamesRadar+ reported. Uber, which had disclosed a breach of its own, had already said there were "reports over the weekend that this same actor breached video game maker Rockstar Games." The police did not confirm that link in public at the time.

In court

At a London youth court, the teenager pleaded not guilty to the computer misuse charges, and the judge sent the case to a higher court, VGC reported on September 27, citing Bloomberg Law. The Rockstar hack came before a jury in 2023: see the jury's finding and the hospital order that followed.

This post does not name the suspect, who was a minor when he was arrested.