GMO Cybersecurity links Chinese AI tool ARTEX to breaches at Japanese firms

A tool built to help companies find their own weak spots appears to have found a second career. On October 19, 2026, Tokyo-based GMO Cybersecurity by Ierae said it confirmed traces of ARTEX, a Chinese-developed AI penetration-testing tool, on servers used to attack Japanese companies. What GMO Cybersecurity found The core finding centers on a single piece of attack infrastructure. According to GMO Cybersecurity, it targeted around 20 Japanese companies. Nine of those companies operate in the same sector. Eight firms reported data breaches between September and October 2026, a timeline that lines up with the activity on the infrastructure GMO Cybersecurity examined. The research findings suggest the overlap points to coordinated efforts from a single threat group. GMO Cybersecurity identified six additional AI-based attack infrastructures aimed at Japanese targets, reaching across retail, education, finance and media. The South Korea connection The link to South Korea runs through CrowdStrike. The US cybersecurity firm tied ARTEX to attacks on South Korean banks in late September 2026. GMO Cybersecurity’s report places the same tool on servers used against Japanese companies, with b...