Rockstar Locks Down Social Media Comments As GTA VI Leak Spreads

In the days following this week massive Grand Theft Auto VI leaks, investigations revealed more information about the party behind the hack. Rather than a single individual, it appears that at least two people, possibly linked to a larger hacker group, were behind the huge breach. And while Rockstar Games is locking down its social media accounts to combat the spread of leaked content, the hackers are now likely to be investigated by the FBI.

On September 18 on the GTA forums, a user appeared and posted more than 90 videos showing the first development footage of the next Grand Theft Auto game, supposed to be GTA VI. The images contained the first looks at the Vice City game setting, as well as police chases, shootings, and what appear to be two main characters. In the days following the leak, Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, attempted to remove the leaked material from the web. Rockstar released a statement on September 19, suggesting the disastrous leak was the result of a hacker who “illegally” accessed the studio’s network.

Now we know that the GTA VI hacker was not one person, but probably at least two different individuals. In a new post on the GTA forumsSite staff shared the results of their investigations into the leak, explaining that based on posting behavior and IP address data, they believe at least two people shared the GTA Forums account, “TeaPotUberHacker”. , which released the leaked data.

According to the staff update, they don’t believe the account was stolen, but was instead split between the two hackers, known as “Teapot” and “Lily.” GTA Forums staff note that Lily has been active on Telegram but they do not believe Lily “currently owns any of the hacked items they claim to have”, and they caution against interacting with them.

The transport application company Uber, which was also recently hacked, released a “security update” earlier this week, blaming a group of hackers called Lapsus$. He claimed Lapsus$ has also this year “violated Microsoft, Cisco, Samsung, Nvidia, and Okta, among others,” and is now also behind the GTA VI leak. Uber says it is working with the FBI and the US Department of Justice to help with the investigation. At this time, it is unknown if Rockstar is also working with the FBI.

In the meantime, as leaked images and screenshots continue to spread across the web, Rockstar has apparently taken action by locking down its social media accounts. If you look at his most recent tweet and Instagram posts, you will notice that they are closed to comments and replies. This is probably an attempt by Rockstar to slow the spread of the leaks, as some fans would likely use the answers under GTA online– linked tweets to share leaked content.

Kotaku contacted Rockstar for comment on the investigation and its newly locked social media accounts.