GMO Internet says it will not pay hackers $50 million after server breach

GMO Internet Group CEO Masatoshi Kumagai wrote on Oct. 26 that the company refused a $50 million demand from hackers who breached its Onamae.com Desktop Cloud service. The service runs brokerage software such as MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 on customer servers, and as many as 26,739 servers may have been affected, though GMO described that as a potential count rather than verified breaches. Some customers reported unauthorized trades through brokerage accounts. GMO said an attacker exploited a security flaw, planted malware and took customer data; the issue was first reported Oct. 19, malware was detected the next day, and GMO began shutting down all plans from 19:00 UTC on Oct. 20. None of the attacker’s demands was met and nothing was paid.