Tokyo police have arrested a 15-year-old high school student for allegedly carrying out cyberattacks on a Bandai Namco Holdings subsidiary using a custom-built software tool.
Police say the boy, from Tokorozawa in Saitama Prefecture, targeted the company's Bandai Channel streaming service. The attacks reportedly caused more than 46,000 memberships to be canceled without customers' permission, disrupting the company's operations.
The cyberattack forced Bandai Channel to suspend its service for more than a month and provide refunds to affected customers.
Authorities believe the teen found a weakness in the company's servers and used a program he improved with generative AI to launch the attacks. Police had previously arrested him in June on suspicion of logging into another user's account while investigating the case.
According to police, the student admitted to the allegations and said he did not have a grudge against the company. He reportedly told police that he taught himself computer skills and enjoyed studying network communications.