Earlier this week, Japanese police arrested a 15-year-old high school student and charged him with launching a cyberattack against Bandai Channel, an anime and tokusatsu streaming platform operated by Bandai Namco, which severely disrupted business operations. According to Japanese media reports, police also mentioned that the teenager allegedly used ChatGPT to help create malware to infiltrate the system and cancel subscription services for a large number of users.
According to《TBS News DigAccording to reports, starting from November 2025, the teenager repeatedly accessed Bandai Channel’s servers without authorization and exploited system vulnerabilities to cancel the subscriptions of over 46,000 members, forcing the platform to temporarily suspend services. This undoubtedly had a significant impact on Bandai’s operations as well as the rights and interests of numerous users.
After conducting a thorough investigation into the teenager, police discovered he had been self-learning programming since fourth grade. When he committed this crime, he was only 15 years old and still attending junior high school. Police said the 15-year-old first analyzed Bandai Channel’s communication data, and after successfully discovering security vulnerabilities, he launched an attack on the platform using malicious programs written with the assistance of ChatGPT.
When Bandai officials discovered the anomaly, they immediately blocked the involved IP addresses and quickly took protective measures. However, the teenager allegedly continued to bypass the blocks by switching IP addresses 30 consecutive times, continuing to cancel subscriptions of numerous members, causing the attack to persist for quite some time. After the blocking attempts proved ineffective, Bandai Namco officials also immediately reported the incident to the Japanese Metropolitan Police Department.
After a comprehensive investigation, police quickly identified the suspect through digital traces such as communication records, and issued an arrest warrant in June this year. After being taken into custody, the juvenile immediately confessed to the crime. However, according to publicly released police information, his motivation for targeting Bandai Namco was not any grievance against them—rather, after discovering he had the ability to access a large number of accounts, he decided to launch the attack driven by curiosity and a sense of challenge.
Additionally, police noted in their case report that although he did obtain personal information such as email addresses and usernames from some members during the attack, this data has not been further misused or leaked to date.
In any case, this case also highlights the potential cybersecurity risks posed by AI technology. Although attacking a company like Bandai still requires an extremely high level of technical skill, AI tools like ChatGPT have provided a more convenient avenue for these technically capable bad actors.
Source: KOCPC Chinese