{"schema_version":"0.8.0","id":"LR-2026-0229","record_version":3,"title":"China-linked autonomous AI agent Artex used in cyberattacks on Japanese and South Korean firms","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":48.1,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":4.8,"unhedged_language":4.81},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-20","extraction_run_id":null},"system":{"model_name":"Artex","model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":"Artex","tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":"diagnosing system vulnerabilities","autonomy_level":"full-auto","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":"agentic_with_tools","intended_use":"AI penetration tool for diagnosing system vulnerabilities","safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-10-20","incident_class":"security_compromise","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":true,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"third_party","summary":"A security firm, the information security subsidiary of GMO Internet Group, investigated cyberattacks on Japanese firms and said the autonomous China-linked AI agent Artex was used in them.","tags":["ai-agent-misuse","cyberattack","japan","data-leak"],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"major","severity_because":"major: Many third parties were affected: eight Japanese companies disclosed data leaks and South Korean financial institutions were also hit.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":"eight Japanese companies in retail, logistics and financial sectors; South Korean financial institutions","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://english.kyodonews.net/articles/-/88761","publisher":"news search (Google News index)","date":"2026-10-20","type":"press","title":"Security firm finds China-linked AI agent behind Japan cyberattacks","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.model_name":"C","system.harness":"C","system.permissions_scope":"C","system.integration_type":"D","system.intended_use":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.developer":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.tags":"D","event.agent_involved":"C","event.detection_method":"D","event.incident_class":"D","event.summary":"D","event.date_disclosed":"A","event.trigger":"D","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.severity":"D","context.industry":"C","context.denominator_available":"D","context.country":"C","impact.severity_because":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.model_name":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Artex is a China-linked AI penetration tool with a high capability of diagnosing system vulnerabilities."}],"system.harness":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The GMO affiliate said its probe indicated that the autonomous AI agent Artex was employed in the cyberattacks against Japanese entities."}],"system.permissions_scope":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Artex is a China-linked AI penetration tool with a high capability of diagnosing system vulnerabilities."}],"system.intended_use":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Artex is a China-linked AI penetration tool with a high capability of diagnosing system vulnerabilities."}],"system.integration_type":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The GMO affiliate said its probe indicated that the autonomous AI agent Artex was employed in the cyberattacks against Japanese entities."}],"system.autonomy_level":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The GMO affiliate said its probe indicated that the autonomous AI agent Artex was employed in the cyberattacks against Japanese entities."}],"event.detection_method":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The information security subsidiary of the Japanese IT firm GMO Internet Group Inc. has discovered six units of attacking devices exclusively targeting Japanese firms, it said Monday on its blog."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The GMO affiliate said its probe indicated that the autonomous AI agent Artex was employed in the cyberattacks against Japanese entities."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The GMO affiliate said its probe indicated that the autonomous AI agent Artex was employed in the cyberattacks against Japanese entities."}],"event.tags":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The GMO affiliate said its probe indicated that the autonomous AI agent Artex was employed in the cyberattacks against Japanese entities."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The information security subsidiary of the Japanese IT firm GMO Internet Group Inc. has discovered six units of attacking devices exclusively targeting Japanese firms, it said Monday on its blog."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Companies in a variety of industries including retail, logistics and financial sectors, were targeted in the attacks, with eight of them disclosing in September and October that data had been leaked."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The GMO affiliate said its probe indicated that the autonomous AI agent Artex was employed in the cyberattacks against Japanese entities."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Companies in a variety of industries including retail, logistics and financial sectors, were targeted in the attacks, with eight of them disclosing in September and October that data had been leaked."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Companies in a variety of industries including retail, logistics and financial sectors, were targeted in the attacks, with eight of them disclosing in September and October that data had been leaked."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Companies in a variety of industries including retail, logistics and financial sectors, were targeted in the attacks, with eight of them disclosing in September and October that data had been leaked."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The information security subsidiary of the Japanese IT firm GMO Internet Group Inc. has discovered six units of attacking devices exclusively targeting Japanese firms, it said Monday on its blog."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Companies in a variety of industries including retail, logistics and financial sectors, were targeted in the attacks, with eight of them disclosing in September and October that data had been leaked."}],"event.date_disclosed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"published: 2026-10-20"}]},"notes_on_gaps":"Only one source (press, GMO blog relayed by news). No source states event.date_occurred, event.trigger, event.root_cause, event.failure_class, event.responsible_party, event.adversarial_actor, event.input_provenance, event.remediation, event.operations_paused, event.near_miss, impact.direct_loss_usd, impact.records_exposed, impact.third_parties_affected_count, impact.harm_class, impact.data_categories_exposed, impact.reversibility, system.developer, system.model_version, system.guardrails_present, system.safeguard_state, system.deployment_context, system.lifecycle_stage, system.production_intended, context.org_size_band, context.denominator, context.systemic_exposure, context.regulatory, context.coverage, context.incident_evidence. Judgements: autonomy_level full-auto is classified from 'autonomous AI agent' with no stated human in the loop (grade D); detection_method third_party rests on GMO's security subsidiary discovering the attacking devices (grade D, the subsidiary is an outside investigator, not the victim); incident_class security_compromise is classified from an attacker using the agent against third-party firms (grade D); severity major rests on eight companies disclosing leaks (many third parties). failure_class left null because no source states the agent's mechanism (it was a tool wielded by an attacker, not an agent acting on its own goal). trigger omitted: no source states a cause. No dollar figure stated, so dollar bands do not apply. The South Korean attacks are mentioned only in the summary sentence of the source's own summary, not in a standalone quoted sentence, so they are not cited separately. system.tier: not set; no operator named and deployment_context is not a lab's. [aggregated by deepseek-chat, aggregate-2026-09-27.1, 2026-10-20] system.integration_type: classified from described behaviour. system.autonomy_level: a source states no person was in the loop while it ran (not: silence about a human is not a statement that none was there). system.developer: no source names the developer. system.deployment_context: no source states where it ran. event.tags: classified from described behaviour. event.detection_method: a source states an outside organisation (a vendor, a partner, a platform) noticed it first (not: the affected party is victim, not third party). event.incident_class: a source states an attacker, an injected instruction or a misused credential caused the system to act, or that the system's own boundary (sandbox, permissions, weights, accounts) was breached (not: an agent acting on a goal of its own with no external cause is agent_misalignment; a wrong action with no adversary and no breach is operational_error). event.summary: classified from described behaviour. event.trigger: no source states a cause. context.denominator_available: no denominator is available for this incident. [corrected by Srini Iyer, approved 2026-10-22 in the corrections review: linked to the records the matcher relates (same disclosure or summary)]"},"context":{"industry":"Retail Trade; Transportation and Warehousing; Finance and Insurance","org_size_band":null,"country":"JP","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":["LR-2026-0232"],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"The autonomous China-linked AI penetration tool Artex was used to attack Japanese firms, diagnosing system vulnerabilities; the GMO Internet Group security subsidiary investigated the attacks on retail, logistics and financial companies.","quote":"Artex is a China-linked AI penetration tool with a high capability of diagnosing system vulnerabilities.","source_index":0,"grade":"D"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"The agent was used in unauthorized access to corporate systems, breaching those firms' security and leading to leaks of data.","quote":"In recent weeks, a growing number of Japanese companies have reported unauthorized access and subsequent information leaks or possible leaks.","source_index":0,"grade":"D"},{"step":"reached","text":"Eight Japanese companies in retail, logistics and finance disclosed leaked data in September and October; South Korean financial institutions were also hit since late September.","quote":"Companies in a variety of industries including retail, logistics and financial sectors, were targeted in the attacks, with eight of them disclosing in September and October that data had been leaked.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"The information security subsidiary of GMO Internet Group discovered six attacking devices targeting Japanese firms and identified Artex through its probe, publishing the finding on its blog.","quote":"The information security subsidiary of the Japanese IT firm GMO Internet Group Inc. has discovered six units of attacking devices exclusively targeting Japanese firms, it said Monday on its blog.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"The government said it is analyzing whether AI was maliciously used after hearing from damaged companies, and vowed to keep working to prevent cyberattacks; no containment or control change is stated.","quote":"\"The government is analyzing whether there was malicious use of AI after hearing from companies that sustained damage,\" Toshiharu Furukawa, minister in charge of cybersecurity, said at a press conference on Tuesday, vowing to continue efforts to prevent cyberattacks.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"deepseek-chat","prompt_version":"aggregate-2026-09-27.1","extracted_at":"2026-10-20","source_urls":["https://english.kyodonews.net/articles/-/88761"]}}