New details are emerging about the person/people responsible for the Grand Theft Auto 6 game trailer leak. The trailer was posted on Twitter in December 2023 and was watermarked with "Buy $BTC".

Last Thursday, cyber sleuth ZachXBT shared new information about the possible identity of the leaker, saying the trailer was obtained from YouTube through illegal means. The leaker shared the trailer via Twitter a day before its scheduled release, overlaid with the Bitcoin logo.

"The Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer was leaked by a threat actor calling himself Skenkir," ZachXBT wrote on Twitter this week. "He purchased access to the YouTube admin panel, allowing him to watch unreleased videos in advance."

ZachXBT also pointed out that Skenkir was involved in more than 40 high-profile SIM swap attacks, with victims including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, musician Steve Aoki, and well-known cryptocurrency critic Peter Schiff. ZachXBT shared screenshots of Skenkir's online interactions before the trailer was leaked.

Last December, an anonymous Twitter account named "Gta6trailerleak" shared a leaked trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6. Game developer Rockstar Games had planned to release the highly anticipated first trailer for the game the next day, but had to release it early due to a doctored low-resolution leak.

After the trailer leaked, YouTube reportedly launched an internal investigation to find out whether the source of the leak came from the video platform's backend.

"I understand that YouTube has investigated employees for breaching contractual agreements twice in the past 18 months due to employees accessing backend content," wrote Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming.

If true, this would be the latest in a series of privacy and security issues for tech giants, following a Google employee accessing and publicly leaking private videos on Nintendo's YouTube account.

Game leaks are not uncommon; in fact, games announced during Sony's recent PlayStation State of Play live event have leaked before. According to Dexerto's report, reports of backdoor access to YouTube accounts date back to 2013.

YouTube and Rockstar Games did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for comment.