The GMO Cybercrime Countermeasure Center announced that the Chinese-developed AI tool ARTEX had been used in unauthorized access attacks targeting Japanese companies. The investigation newly identified 6 pieces of AI attack infrastructure targeting Japanese companies.
According to an announcement by the investigative organization, use of ARTEX was confirmed in unauthorized access attacks targeting Japanese companies, and 6 additional attack-origin servers were identified.
ARTEX is an autonomous AI-powered vulnerability discovery and penetration-testing tool developed in China. It works with LLMs to automate operations. Its developers have withdrawn it from public release following reports of its misuse.
The attacks were concentrated in specific countries and industries. Approximately 20 Japanese companies were observed, 9 of which had websites in the same industry as their targets. The newly identified infrastructure is also believed to have targeted primarily Japanese companies.
The targets spanned a wide range of sectors, including digital gifts, retail and distribution; education, gifts and printing; point-based gifts and marketing; insurance and finance; and e-commerce, media and logistics. A CrowdStrike report also pointed to the use of ARTEX.