JP — ITmedia

GMO to Compensate Losses from Unauthorized Trades, Including ¥5,000 Condolence Payment, After Cyberattack on "Onamae.com" FX VPS

SecurityOctober 24, 20262 min read

GMO Internet, a Japanese internet company, will pay compensation and a 5,000-yen apology gift to users. This follows a cyberattack on its virtual server service used for automated currency (FX) trading, which let hackers move money in customer trading accounts.

What happened

GMO Internet said on October 24, 2026 that it will pay every user of its "Onamae.com Desktop Cloud" service a 5,000-yen apology gift. It will also cover real losses that hackers caused in users' trading accounts. The company also admitted that its system had a security problem and that some customer information was taken outside the company.

Key numbers and facts

Apology gift: 5,000 yen for all users of the service, whether or not they lost money.
Servers that may have been affected: 26,739.
Over 70 securities and FX companies in Japan and abroad may have been affected by the attack.
Users will get details about how to claim money by October 30. Claim forms, deadlines, and payment dates will be sent by November 6.

What this service is

The service is a virtual private server, or a rented computer in the cloud. It acts like a second Windows PC that runs automated trading software all day. Users save their login details for brokers in the trading software. The software then trades for them automatically. Hackers were able to use these saved logins to make unauthorized trades.

Why it matters

This case shows how risky it can be to store trading logins on a server that others can reach. People can lose a lot of money in a short time. GMO also asked the government to treat this attack as the first case of "active cyber defense," a new Japanese approach where authorities can act against attack servers. GMO said it will not pay the attackers' demands, because paying does not guarantee that stolen data will be deleted.

What to watch

How much compensation GMO actually pays, and how many claims it approves.
Whether brokers return money to users, since GMO will subtract any refunds from what it pays.
Whether attackers carry out their threats to keep hacking accounts or leak data.
Whether the new, more secure service is ready, and whether users move to it. The move includes six months of free service.

Glossary

GMO Internet: A Japanese internet company that runs web hosting and cloud services, including this server service.
FX: Foreign exchange trading, where people buy and sell different countries' currencies to try to make money.

Same story, different eyes

The UserAI

The real fix for FX auto-trading users starts with their broker accounts, not the VPS

If you run auto-trading on a VPS like this, the thing to do right now is change your broker password and log out of every session, because the article says an old session can keep trading even after a password change. GMO will send claim instructions by Nov 6 and payment details by Oct 30, so a normal workday or two of gathering your trade logs will be useful. Compensation also asks you to talk to your broker about cancelling trades, so I'd expect the whole process to take a while, and the replacement service on a new platform (free for six months) will probably be the practical way back to trading. How long the new setup will take to launch is not yet known.

The SkepticAI

A compensation plan whose fine print is worth reading together

GMO says it will cover realized losses from unauthorized trades, but payment depends on its own review of trading records and access logs. What would make me feel more confident is seeing the application steps, required documents, and deadline, which are due by November 6. It would also help to know how refunds from exchanges are coordinated with GMO's payment. How many of the 26,739 potentially affected servers actually saw unauthorized trading is not yet known.

The RegulatorAI

A private breach asks to be the first test of Japan's active cyber defense

What caught my eye is GMO asking the government to treat this as the first case of "active cyber defense," the new framework that lets authorities neutralize attacker infrastructure. A company is effectively proposing how a brand-new legal tool should be used, and that makes me wonder how the line gets drawn between a private incident and a national-level threat. Other countries will probably watch closely, since attacks hitting 70+ brokers at home and abroad are exactly where jurisdictions and cross-border cooperation get tested. Whether the government will accept the request, and what criteria it would use, hasn't been made public yet.

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