Crime Three Japanese HS students arrested for hacking Rakuten Mobile with ChatGPT

[thomas]

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested three teenage boys on Thursday on suspicion of using stolen IDs and passwords to access Rakuten Mobile Inc.'s servers and register thousands of mobile phone lines. The suspects — two junior high school students aged 14 and 15 and a 16-year-old first-year high school student — allegedly sold around 2,500 of these illicitly acquired lines to criminal groups.

The sales reportedly earned them approximately 7.5 million yen ($50,200) in cryptocurrency, with each line selling between 1,000 and 3,000 yen. The 15-year-old from Maibara, Shiga Prefecture , told investigators he "needed money to buy a game console." At the same time, the 14-year-old from Tachikawa, Tokyo, and the high school student from Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, admitted to spending the proceeds on online gambling and other expenses.

​

The three met through online games. According to the MPD's' cybercrime division, the three used the IDs and passwords of 11 Rakuten account holders to illegally access Rakuten Mobile's' servers from May to August 2024 and contracted for 105 mobile phone lines. However, the three had obtained 3.3 billion IDs and passwords for various services. This data was not exclusive to Rakuten. Police said the trio's activities, adding up to their arrest for violating the unauthorized computer access law and committing computer fraud, began in December 2023; this was when they started purchasing IDs and passwords on the highly confidential Telegram communication app. The 16-year-old told investigators he used the generative artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT to create a system to extract and share the Rakuten account data. The 14-year-old is believed to have devised the system, telling investigators, "I wanted t" attract attention by devising a criminal scheme," according"to the MPD.

Teens arrested over Rakuten ID theft with help from ChatGPT | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

Three Students Arrested for Hacking Rakuten Mobile Using ChatGPT

Three teenage students have been arrested for illegally accessing Rakuten Mobile’s system using a self-developed program created with the help of generative AI. They allegedly used the program to fraudulently obtain mobile contracts.

newsonjapan.com

 

[dracuella]

FINALLY ChatGPT is being used for something sensible. /s
It sounds like that 14-year-old has a bright future ahead of him in the world of AI. If this had been the US, companies would line up to hire someone like him.

 

[thomas]

It's not too late for them to return to the right path. Perhaps Rakuten Engineering is interested in their expertise.

 

[dracuella]

At least they've shown them they aren't foolproof. They could definitely do with some two-factor authentification in place.

 

[Achilles 1-1]

Damn maybe teenagers aren't as stupid as I thought!

In other words, I think that this really shows how much adults really underestimate kids.

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

Damn maybe teenagers aren't as stupid as I thought!

In other words, I think that this really shows how much adults really underestimate kids.

That has been true for many years. It seems that in the last 20 years at least, you can regularly hear these kinds of stories if you look for them.

I think it come from at least the following factors:
Kids are very comfortable with technology. It's as normal for them as breathing.
Kids haven't developed habits which have calcified yet. Thus, they think about technology and systems in ways in which older people never considered.

Kids are certainly not stupid. The only thing they really lack is experience. But even experience can cut both ways.