Japan Cyber-Shock: Teen Hacked Kaikatsu Club, Used AI to Bypass Defenses
At the beginning of the year, Japan was shaken by a scandal surrounding a major data breach involving the Kaikatsu Club internet café chain. Law enforcement authorities identified a minor from Osaka Prefecture who, according to investigators, managed to circumvent the security of the company’s official app and disable portions of its functionality.
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, the operator’s official application came under a massive attack in January, resulting in the compromise of more than seven million records. A 17-year-old student was taken into custody and is accused of unlawfully accessing the information system and interfering with the operation of the service.
Investigators report that the teenager had been fascinated by programming since childhood and had already received an award in a cybersecurity competition. They believe he authored the malicious code himself.
The company detected suspicious activity in time and attempted to neutralize the attack. At that point, according to investigators, the teenager sought to bypass the strengthened defenses by turning to an artificial-intelligence tool and requesting guidance on how to evade digital security barriers.
Police allege that the information he obtained was then used to modify his original code. The automated attacks ultimately exceeded 7.24 million requests, forcing the operator to temporarily shut down parts of the application’s functionality.
The suspect has largely admitted to the charges, saying that he felt a thrill in testing the system’s resilience to intrusion.
Japan’s National Public Safety Commission notes a rise in youth involvement in cyber offenses: nearly 70 percent of suspects in unlawful-access cases are teenagers or individuals under the age of thirty.
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