Tokyo, Nov. 2 (Jiji Press)–GMO Internet Group Inc. Chairman and Group CEO Masatoshi Kumagai on Monday admitted that the company had security flaws, following an unauthorized access incident involving its servers. At the first press conference held by GMO since it announced the unauthorized access last month, Kumagai said, “We’d like to apologize from the bottom of our hearts to customers and related parties who suffered damage.” “It’s true that there was a security issue with our service,” he said, adding, “We were also informed of system-related issues by experts.” He said that he takes GMO’s failure to incorporate such feedback seriously. GMO on Oct. 21 said that the servers used for foreign exchange margin trading cloud services had suffered unauthorized access. Three days later, it asked the Japanese government to implement active cyber defense operations. On Oct. 26, GMO said that the alleged attackers had demanded 50 million dollars, or some 8 billion yen. Personal information believed to belong to a GMO Internet customer was released online the following day. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
