Tokyo police have detained a 15-year-old high school student connected to a significant cyberattack on a widely-used anime streaming service. The teenager, residing near Tokyo, reportedly took advantage of a server vulnerability at Bandai Channel, a subscription-based platform, to illegitimately cancel over 46,000 user subscriptions. This information was shared by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department with local media. The young suspect allegedly discovered the flaw by scrutinizing the network traffic of the service and then created a malicious program with the help of ChatGPT to automate the attacks. In November 2025, he allegedly transmitted fraudulent data to the company's servers, which led to the cancellation of thousands of accounts and a temporary suspension of the service.
Initially apprehended in June for allegedly accessing the platform through another user's account, the police's continued investigation tied him to the larger cyberattack. The teenager confessed to the offenses and stated he bore no ill will toward the company, explaining that he was self-taught in programming and found enjoyment in analyzing network communications. As per the service's operator, the disruption necessitated a suspension of the platform for over a month while it worked on system repairs and provided refunds to the affected subscribers.
Despite the company blocking his access upon detecting the attacks, the teenager persisted with unauthorized account cancellations by frequently altering his IP address. The company reported the incident to authorities in November, and investigators pinpointed the suspect via an analysis of communication records. Bandai Channel is owned by one of Japan's largest entertainment firms, known for publishing internationally recognized video game franchises. In 2022, the parent company disclosed a cyberattack that potentially compromised customer information due to unauthorized access to systems used by several of its Asian subsidiaries, which was later claimed by the AlphV ransomware group.