Authorities in Japan have apprehended a 15-year-old high school student accused of disrupting business operations after allegedly launching cyberattacks on Bandai Channel, a premium anime and tokusatsu streaming platform managed by Bandai Namco (source: TBS News Dig).
The teenager is suspected of illicitly infiltrating Bandai Channel’s servers on multiple occasions starting in November 2025. Through these cyberattacks, he purportedly terminated subscriptions for over 46 thousand members, prompting Bandai Namco to briefly halt the service.
According to official statements, the student began teaching himself programming skills around the time he was in fourth grade of elementary school. By the time of the incident, while in his final year of junior high school, he uncovered a flaw in Bandai Namco’s system by scrutinizing its communication data. He subsequently utilized ChatGPT to develop custom malware and execute the cyberattacks.
Upon detecting the damage, Bandai Namco swiftly implemented countermeasures such as restricting his access, but he allegedly persisted in canceling memberships by altering his IP address approximately 30 times.
Bandai Namco subsequently reached out to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which identified the student as a suspect following an investigation of communication records and other evidence. The arrest was carried out in June of this year, with the boy admitting to the accusations. He reportedly stated that he was not driven by any animosity toward the company, and that he acted merely because he could access a substantial number of accounts.
Although the boy acquired members’ email addresses and usernames during the attacks, police confirm that no misuse of this information has been detected.