A cyberattack targeting a popular anime streaming platform has led to the arrest of a 15-year-old high school student in Japan. Authorities allege that the teenager exploited a server vulnerability to cancel thousands of user subscriptions, causing major disruption to the service.
According to the investigation, the student, who lives near Tokyo, allegedly identified a security flaw in the servers of Bandai Channel by analysing the platform’s network traffic. Police said he used ChatGPT to develop a malicious program that automated the attack.
Officials claimed the teenager sent fraudulent data to the company’s servers in November 2025, resulting in the cancellation of more than 46,000 user subscriptions. The incident forced the streaming platform to temporarily suspend its services.
The student was initially arrested in June for allegedly logging into the platform using another user’s account. During further investigations, police connected him to the larger cyberattack. He admitted to the allegations and told investigators he had no personal grudge against the company. He also said he had learned programming on his own and enjoyed analysing network communications.
The streaming service operator stated that the disruption forced the platform to remain offline for more than 1 month while security issues were fixed and affected subscribers were refunded.
Police said the company blocked the suspect’s access after detecting the attacks. However, he allegedly continued carrying out unauthorised account cancellations by repeatedly changing his IP address.
The company reported the cyberattack to police in November, and investigators identified the suspect after analysing communication records.
The anime streaming service is owned by one of Japan’s largest entertainment companies, known for publishing globally popular video game franchises. In 2022, the parent company disclosed another cyberattack that may have exposed customer information after unauthorised access to systems used by several of its Asian subsidiaries. The incident was later claimed by the AlphV ransomware group.
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