GMO’s CEO Kumagai to hold news conference Monday on cyberattack

GMO Internet Group CEO Masatoshi Kumagai and other executives will hold a news conference in Tokyo on Monday to address a series of unauthorized access incidents, the company said Saturday.

The company will explain the circumstances surrounding a cyberattack on its Onamae.com Desktop Cloud service, which provides servers for automated foreign exchange margin trading, as well as its response to affected customers and measures to prevent further incidents.

The news conference will be the company’s first since the unauthorized access incidents came to light.

Users of the GMO’s foreign exchange margin trading have called on the company to explain how millions of yen in assets were lost virtually overnight.

A company worker in her 20s in Aichi Prefecture discovered that she had fallen victim to the cyberattack on the morning of Oct. 22. In unauthorized transactions conducted around 5 a.m., some 50 trades were executed in roughly 3 minutes, causing her to lose ¥4.3 million, or almost all the assets in her account.

“I trusted the service because it was operated by a major company,” she said.

“I now feel uneasy about all kinds of services connected to the internet,” she said. “I want (the company) to clarify what happened.”

A 58-year-old trader in Fukui Prefecture lost some ¥680,000. His transaction history showed records of trades involving currencies such as the South African rand and Danish krone, which he did not usually trade.

“I am distrustful (of GMO) because the company had been aware of system vulnerabilities for some time but did nothing,” he said. “I remain unable to concentrate on my work because my computer may have been infected with a virus.”

A 39-year-old public servant in Niigata Prefecture lost about ¥1 million in investments he had been saving for his two daughters’ education and his family’s future. He said the cyberattack had taken a heavy toll not only on his finances but also on his daily life and mental well-being.

“The funds I had built up over time were gone in just a few minutes,” he said. “I feel devastated because what I had worked to do so hard for my family has become a source of great anxiety and distress.”