GMO Internet investigates leak after Onamae cloud desktop breach

In short: GMO Internet says it is checking whether hackers posted stolen customer data after a breach in its Onamae Desktop Cloud service.

What happened

Japan’s GMO Internet said it is investigating a possible data leak linked to unauthorized access to its Onamae Desktop Cloud service. The service provides cloud desktops, which are like rental computers you use over the internet instead of on your own machine.

In a blog post, GMO said it believes an attacker has published information that appears to be linked to the company, its business, and customers. The company said it is still verifying what was posted, and it does not yet know the full scope of the incident.

GMO has told customers to reset their passwords. The company said it received reports of “unauthorized operations” on customer trading accounts. GMO also said up to 27,000 servers may be affected.

The company shared a timeline of actions. On Oct. 21 it shut down the Onamae Desktop Cloud service after discovering unauthorized access, and it said it received a ransom demand of about 8 billion yen, or about $50 million. GMO later reported the incident to police, offered compensation and alternative services, and began collecting customer devices to check for malware, which is harmful software (like a hidden tool an intruder leaves behind).

Why it matters

This kind of breach can lead to account takeovers, especially for financial trading accounts. Even if the leaked data turns out to be incomplete, password resets and extra security steps can reduce the chance of someone getting in using stolen details.

Source: TechCrunch AI