In an incident that changed the balance of cybersecurity and sparked fear in the tech sector, the devastating cyber attack that shook Japan’s largest gaming and anime companies was not the work of an army of professional hackers, but a teenager under the age of 15. But it was this boy’s secret weapon that turned this attack into a true nightmare. It is generative artificial intelligence via the famous ChatGPT chatbot.
This chapter of digital excitement begins in the city of Tokorozawa, near Tokyo. There, a high school student successfully hacked into the Bandai Namco Filmworks server. A boy who loved network analysis and had taught himself programming since elementary school was faced with a technical dilemma. The source code he wrote himself for the purpose of canceling a user’s subscription was very slow and took a long time.
Here, the boy resorted to an “artificial intelligence trap” and asked ChatGPT to modify the code and rewrite it in a different programming language to speed up the process. In the blink of an eye, the robot gave him a deadly weapon, resulting in the forcible deletion and deregistration of 46,812 accounts of the famous anime streaming service “Bandai Chanel” without the owner’s knowledge or consent.
cinematic chase
This hack wasn’t just a random hit, it turned into an arduous battle between a smart teenager and a sophisticated defense system. When the company discovered the attack and tried to take measures to thwart the attackers, the boy showed terrifying ingenuity.
Changing Digital ID: He changed his protocol (IP) address 30 times in a row to circumvent the ban and continued to send incorrect commands to the server.
No grudges or animosity: What was shocking about the investigation was that the boy admitted that he had no grudges against the company and had only targeted it because it “contains a huge number of accounts” that he found an easy way to infiltrate and show off his skills.
The blow was so painful that the Japanese gaming giant was forced to completely shut down its streaming service for more than a month and return money to affected subscribers to repair severe damage to the system.
However, the nightmare did not end there, as the company subsequently announced that the personal and sensitive data of up to 1.36 million accounts, including email addresses, user balances, and payment methods, could be compromised, putting the company in an unprecedented legal and security dilemma, despite confirming that this data was not yet published on the internet.
This case is one of the first criminal cases in Japan to witness the use of artificial intelligence as a direct means of attack. Thanks to “programming commands” created by artificial intelligence in seconds, an amateur teenager was able to bring down the servers of a huge company, providing conclusive evidence of how technology has succeeded in lowering the barriers to criminal activity.
In an incident that changed the scale of cybersecurity and instilled fear in the technology sector, the devastating cyberattack that shook Japan’s largest gaming and anime companies was carried out not by an army of professional hackers, but by a teenage boy who had just turned 15. But what made this attack a true nightmare was the boy’s secret weapon. It is generative artificial intelligence powered by the famous chatbot ChatGPT.
This chapter of digital excitement begins in the city of Tokorozawa, near Tokyo. There, a high school student successfully hacked the Bandai Namco Filmworks server. This boy, who loved analyzing networks and teaching himself programming since elementary school, was faced with a technical dilemma. The source code he wrote himself to cancel a user’s subscription was extremely slow and took a long time.
At this point, the boy resorted to the “AI trap” and asked ChatGPT to improve the code and rewrite it in a different programming language to speed up the process. In the blink of an eye, the robot gave him the deadly weapon, resulting in 46,812 accounts on the popular anime streaming service Bandai Channel being forcibly deleted and canceled without the owners’ knowledge or consent.
cinematic chase
This hack wasn’t just a random attack. It became an arduous battle between a smart teenager and an advanced defense system. When the company detected the attack and tried to take measures to thwart the attackers, the boy showed terrifying ingenuity.
Digital ID change: He changed his IP address 30 times in a row in order to circumvent the ban and keep sending incorrect commands to the server.
No malice or hatred: The shocking part of the investigation was the boy’s admission that he had no grudge against the company. He targeted it simply because it had “a huge number of accounts” and he found an easy way to break in and show off his skills.
The blow was so painful that the Japanese gaming giant had to completely shut down its streaming service for more than a month and refund affected subscribers in order to repair the severe damage it had done to the system.
But the nightmare didn’t end there, as the company subsequently announced a potential leak of personal and sensitive data for up to 1.36 accounts, including email addresses, 1 million user balances, and payment methods, throwing the company into an unprecedented legal and security turmoil, despite confirming that it had not yet published that data online.
This case is one of the first criminal cases in Japan to witness the use of artificial intelligence as a direct means of attack. This is a conclusive proof of how technology has succeeded in lowering the barriers to criminal activity, allowing a teenage amateur to take down the servers of a huge company thanks to a “programmed command” created by artificial intelligence in just a few seconds.
