An investigation by GMOサイバーセキュリティ byイエラエ found that ARTEX, an AI penetration-testing tool developed in China, had been misused in unauthorized access targeting Japanese companies. ARTEX use was confirmed through an investigation of the attack-source servers, and the targets may be expanding, primarily among Japanese companies.
A report by GMOサイバーセキュリティ byイエラエ found that ARTEX, an AI penetration-testing tool developed in China, had been misused in unauthorized access targeting Japanese companies. Of the Japanese companies covered by the investigation, 8 were confirmed to have disclosed information leaks in September–October 2026. ARTEX is a tool that works with an LLM to automatically search for vulnerabilities. It was originally released for security testing, but may be being misused in cyberattacks.
A detailed investigation of ARTEX's attack-source servers found that many attacks primarily targeted Japanese companies and affected multiple industries in Japan. Within the observed scope, approximately 20 companies, mainly in Japan, were targeted, including 9 companies in the same industry. Further tracing of the attack indicators uncovered 6 new AI-enabled servers primarily targeting Japanese companies.
Target industries included digital gifts, retail and distribution, education, printing, insurance and finance, e-commerce, media, and logistics, suggesting that the damage may be widespread. The report did not explicitly establish a direct causal link between the names of the 8 companies or their individual information leaks and the ARTEX attacks, but it pointed to the possibility of multiple victims linked to the same group, and information was shared with law-enforcement authorities.
In light of observations by CrowdStrike, the attack group may be using a method of preparing separate servers for specific countries and industries. The presence of targets across a broader range of countries, including countries other than Japan and South Korea, remains under investigation, and attention is focused on additional information.