GMO Internet Group opened a tip program capped at $1 million for information leading to arrests in its cloud-service breach, after a domain used to post material about the company was suspended.
GMO said the domain was suspended at about 3 p.m. EDT Oct. 27 (19:00 UTC). The company’s reward site opened at 11 p.m. EDT that day, an eight-hour gap. By 5 a.m. EDT Oct. 28 (09:00 UTC), GMO had received 113 submissions.
The $1 million figure sets the total limit on reward payments; it is not a new ransom amount. GMO said the attackers had demanded about ¥8 billion. The company declined to pay, saying payment could not guarantee deletion or prevent misuse, and could fund criminals and encourage more attacks.
People GMO believes were behind the attack posted material on Oct. 27 that they said concerned the company and its customers, GMO said. It was assessing the posts and said their claims might not be accurate. The company separately said its probe detected customer data beyond its systems, while some users had contacted it about trades they did not recognize.
GMO said the service could have involved as many as 26,739 servers, a possible scope rather than a confirmed count of systems accessed or data taken. The company is funding the reward program and has separately announced ¥5,000 payments for eligible customers and compensation for verified unauthorized trading losses, as described in EconoTimes’ earlier report on its compensation policy.
GMO said it will publish submission totals at 5 a.m. EDT (09:00 UTC) on weekdays, excluding holidays, and continue updates until an arrest or an international wanted notice.
