New particulars are coming to mild concerning the particular person/individuals answerable for the leaked Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer that was posted to Twitter in December 2023 with a “Purchase $BTC” watermark.
On Thursday, pseudonymous web sleuth ZachXBT shared new details about the doable id of the leaker, saying that the particular person in query swiped the official trailer from YouTube through unauthorized entry. It was then shared through Twitter a day earlier than the deliberate launch, however with the Bitcoin plug overlaid on high.
“The GTA 6 trailer was leaked by a risk actor who goes by the alias Skenkir,” ZachXBT wrote on Twitter this week. “He bought entry to a YouTube admin panel which allowed him to view the unlisted video early.”
Skenkir, ZachXBT added, has additionally been concerned in over 40 high-profile SIM swap assaults, together with these towards Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, musician Steve Aoki, and outstanding crypto critic Peter Schiff. ZachXBT shared alleged screenshots of on-line interactions from the leaker forward of the trailer leak.
ZachXBT didn’t instantly reply to Decrypt’s request for remark.
In December, an nameless Twitter account named “Gta6trailerleak” shared the leaked trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6. Franchise developer Rockstar Video games had deliberate to launch the primary trailer for the massively anticipated recreation the next day, however was compelled to launch it early because of the modified, low-resolution leak.
After the leak of the GTA 6 trailer, YouTube reportedly launched an inner investigation to seek out out if the supply of the leak got here through the video platform’s backend.
“From what I can collect, YouTube has investigated staff breaching their contractual agreements on two completely different events up to now 18 months as a result of staff accessing content material on the backend,” Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson wrote final week.
If true, the GTA 6 trailer leak can be the most recent in a string of privateness and safety points on the tech large, together with a Google worker accessing and publicly leaking non-public movies on the Nintendo YouTube account.
Recreation leaks are nothing new; in reality, the video games introduced on the latest Sony PlayStation State of Play streaming occasion have been leaked forward of time. Experiences of accounts being accessed on YouTube as a result of backdoor entry date again to 2013, in line with a report by Dexerto.
YouTube and Rockstar Video games didn’t instantly reply to remark requests from Decrypt.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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