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GMO Internet notice dated Oct. 22, 2026, 16:59, headed Important: apology and notice regarding unauthorized access to Onamae.com Desktop Cloud (second report), in Japanese, asking customers to change trading tool and brokerage passwords and log off.
Screenshot: GMO Internet, second notice on unauthorized access to Onamae.com Desktop Cloud (Japanese), Oct 22, 2026 (fair use).

Response

GMO Shuts Down Every Onamae.com Desktop Cloud Server After an Intruder Planted Malware on Its Japanese FX Trading VPS Service, Putting MetaTrader Logins on Up to 26,739 Servers at Risk

GMO Internet says a malicious program was installed on customer servers of a hosted service that runs MetaTrader currency trading software around the clock, that trading logins stored on the machines may have been taken and used, and that customers have reported unauthorized activity in their brokerage accounts. What responders should rotate, and from where.

Noah Park, ResponseNew York5 min read

NEW YORK - GMO Internet, the Japanese web hosting and domain registration company, has switched off every server in its Onamae.com Desktop Cloud service after finding that an intruder had planted a malicious program on customer machines. On Thursday the company said trading logins stored on those servers may have been taken and used, and that customers had reported unauthorized activity in their brokerage accounts.

Desktop Cloud is a virtual private server service for running foreign exchange auto-trading software such as MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 around the clock on a cloud server instead of a home computer, according to ITmedia News, which reported that plans start at 2,640 yen a month and that the service has had more than 200,000 cumulative contracts. GMO said 26,739 servers may be affected.

In its second notice, timestamped 4:59 p.m. Tokyo time on Oct. 22, GMO said customers had reported unauthorized operations on their trading accounts connected to the trading tools they ran on the service. It warned that passwords and other credentials for MT4 and MT5 and for the brokerage accounts themselves may have been viewed by a third party, and asked customers to change them urgently and then log off to cut existing sessions. The company said it consulted the police on Oct. 22.

How it unfolded

GMO's own timeline, published in Japanese, runs four days:

  • Oct. 19: a customer inquiry prompted an investigation.
  • Oct. 20: GMO confirmed that a malicious program had been installed and stopped new sign-ups and the control panel.
  • Oct. 21, 4 a.m. Tokyo time: to prevent further damage, it began shutting down servers on all plans and posted its first notice.
  • From Oct. 21: customers reported unauthorized operations on their trading accounts, and GMO shared the situation with the businesses involved and asked for their help in notifying customers.
  • Oct. 22: GMO consulted the police.
GMO Internet second notice sections 1 to 3 in Japanese: overview stating a malicious program was found on some customer server environments on Oct. 20, 2026; the timeline from Oct. 19 to Oct. 22; and the scope covering all Desktop Cloud plans, 26,739 servers and information stored on the servers, including brokerage login details saved in trading tools.
Screenshot: GMO Internet, overview, timeline and scope sections of the second notice (Japanese), Oct 22, 2026 (fair use).

The story moved quickly between the two notices. The first, posted at 4 a.m. on Oct. 21, said information stored on the servers may have been viewed but that GMO had not confirmed any leak of the personal information it holds or any misuse of the viewed data. By Thursday, GMO said its investigation and customer reports showed that trading account login details stored on the servers may have been obtained and misused by a third party.

Onamae.com first notice in Japanese, posted Oct. 21, 2026, as of 4:00, stating that a malicious program was installed on some customer server environments, that information stored on the servers may have been viewed, that 26,739 servers may be affected and that servers on all plans would be stopped from 4:00 on Oct. 21.
Screenshot: Onamae.com, first notice on unauthorized access to Desktop Cloud (Japanese), Oct 21, 2026 (fair use).

GMO has not said how the intruder got in or what the program does. It said it is investigating the intrusion path and the scope with a security firm, that servers on all plans remain stopped and that no date has been set to resume service. It said it does not hold customers' payment information, including credit card data, on the service's servers.

Brokers are now cleaning up downstream. OANDA Securities in Japan posted a notice on Oct. 22 whose title refers to unauthorized logins tied to the Desktop Cloud breach. It told customers who ran OANDA's MT4 or MT5 on the service that their account IDs and passwords may have been viewed, and asked them to change their account and MetaTrader passwords, turn on MetaTrader two-step authentication, check their trading history and contact support about anything suspicious.

Why responders should care

The customers did nothing wrong on their own networks. They stored credentials on a machine a provider ran for them, and the provider's compromise turned those stored secrets into the attack path. Any organization whose treasury, trading or finance staff rent hosted desktops or VPS instances to run always-on tools carries the same exposure, whether or not its own SOC can see those machines.

GMO Internet urgent request to customers in Japanese: change trading tool (MT4/MT5) and brokerage passwords from a device other than the service's servers, then log off; check trading history and balances; enable two-step authentication where offered; and change any credentials stored on the servers and any reused passwords.
Screenshot: GMO Internet, urgent customer instructions in the second notice (Japanese), Oct 22, 2026 (fair use).

What to do now

  • Find out whether anyone in the organization used Onamae.com Desktop Cloud, and treat every credential stored on those servers as exposed, including MetaTrader logins, brokerage portal passwords and anything saved in browsers or tools on the machine.
  • Change those passwords from a device other than the Desktop Cloud server, as GMO instructs, then log off or revoke existing sessions so a stolen session cannot outlive the reset.
  • Turn on two-step authentication with brokers that offer it, as both GMO and OANDA advise.
  • Review trading history and balances for activity no one recognizes and report it to the broker.
  • Change any other credential that was stored on or used from the server, and any password reused elsewhere, starting with email and corporate single sign-on.
  • Warn staff about follow-on phishing. GMO said it will never ask for passwords or credit card information by email or phone.
  • Because GMO has not disclosed the intrusion path or the program, review your own identity and broker access logs for sign-ins from unfamiliar locations from at least Oct. 19, when GMO began investigating, and earlier where logs allow.

Sources:


Noah Park covers incident response, containment, and blue-team operations for SOCtember from New York.

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