TOKYO (TR) – GMO Internet Group revealed on Monday that hackers demanded a $50 million (approximately 7.9 billion yen) ransom in cryptocurrency following a cyberattack on one of its subsidiary companies, reports the Nikkei Shimbun (Oct. 26).
Chairman and President Masatoshi Kumagai disclosed the extortion attempt in an update to his personal blog, where he also published the text of the threatening message sent by the attackers. It marks the first time the tech giant has disclosed the staggering ransom amount.
“We have not complied with these demands and have not made any payments whatsoever,” Kumagai stressed, noting that the attackers’ initial payment deadline of 5:00 p.m. on June 21 had already passed.
The extortion plot took a bizarre turn on June 24 when the attackers posted a different demand on their own website. The hackers claimed they would spare users from further ransomware attacks if GMO paid $1 million by noon on June 27—a stark discrepancy in both the requested amount and the timeline compared to the original threat.
The breach, first announced by GMO on June 21, targeted a cloud service provided to clients for automated foreign exchange (FX) trading. Following the initial deadline, multiple users began reporting unauthorized and suspicious transactions occurring within their trading accounts.
In his blog post, Kumagai admitted that the attackers exploited internal vulnerabilities that had already been flagged within the company. He promised that GMO Internet would fully compensate users for any financial losses confirmed to be caused by the unauthorized trades.
In the wake of the attack, the chairman revealed he has urgently petitioned the Japanese government to adopt “active cyber defense” measures to preemptively strike and prevent future cybercrimes.
