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The story
Over the unauthorized access incident affecting GMO Internet Group, the company announced on October 27, 2026 that it would pay condolence money of up to ¥3 million, based on the number of records exposed, to customers whose information was made public. The attackers reportedly demanded a payment of $50 million, but GMO refused to comply. It has also been reported that the attackers’ site has gone offline, apparently due to action taken by a US provider, and that the Metropolitan Police Department has launched an investigation on suspicion of violating the Unauthorized Computer Access Law. On the thread, opinions were split between those praising the ‘refusal to bow to the demand’ and those pointing out that ‘even though the site is down, the leaked information itself hasn’t disappeared, so this can’t really be called resolved.’
What people said
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GMO: "Lol, idiot — who's paying that lol"
Seeing that reply, I finally realized I'd been mixing it up with DMM.
They've got FX trading too.
Never actually used either, though.
If you trace it back, it was originally a Dial Q2 company (old-school premium adult phone-line service), so you're not entirely wrong.
Though it doesn't seem like they were actually in the porn business.
GMO: "Rather than hand money to a hacker, we'll use it to compensate the victims lol"
GMO Internet Group announced on the 27th that, regarding the unauthorized access to its services, it will pay condolence money of up to ¥3 million to customers whose personal information was exposed by the attackers. The payout amount is reportedly calculated based on how much information was exposed.
¥3 million isn't nearly enough.
What about Times' ¥3,000 (a jab at that company's infamously stingy breach compensation)?
"We'll take down the mirror sites and whatever new site pops up too."
Reassuring — though who's actually doing the impressive work here?
Hacker group's site targeting GMO goes offline — possibly action by a US provider; Metropolitan Police Department investigating on suspicion of violating the Unauthorized Computer Access Law
https://share.google/2Hr2bysen6mUDpG1u
It's up on Yahoo News too (written teasingly as "Yahoo" in hiragana).
They might still have the data itself,
or maybe it was all bluff to begin with,
but having the site taken down means they've lost their "we'll leak it!" threat.
Even if they spin up a new site, the IP address changes too,
so their claims carry less weight.
And the fact that it got shut down in the first place means the provider has identified the account holder and is already acting.
I'd call this a first step toward a resolution.
In the West, companies probably give in to hackers because otherwise they'd face massive damages claims from customers.
Not me though, never used them.
Just kidding — I've used them nonstop, stacked up on those ¥10 sales like crazy.
Stuff from the ¥10 sale isn't exactly deep-kink material, so it's not really damage worth crying about.
Hackers are human too, they take overseas trips sometimes.
Last month the leader of Russia's biggest hacker crew got arrested in Japan.
Guess thieves really aren't the sharpest tools, huh lol
That's exactly why the hackers have been on a rampage ever since.
If the culprit signed the contract under their real name, they'd get caught instantly lol
I'd bet they went through someone else to set it up,
but if that route can be traced, they can catch them.
GMO isn't really shady though.
They even run a securities brokerage.
Like a lot of people are guessing, whether or not they're the actual mastermind, it looks like someone's involved who's a recently-quit, not-very-senior systems engineer from inside the company or an affiliate.
Reminds me of Yusuke Katayama (the infamous "remote-control virus" hacker from an unrelated 2012 case).
Japan has this beautiful culture of never bowing to hackers even if there are casualties, so I guess a negotiation channel isn't needed.
Isn't this just kicking the problem down the road?
The homepage probably went down because they physically powered off and isolated the server so the hacker can't interfere, and now they're going to run a forensic analysis.
They'll comb through every connection log, and if the hacker ever connected directly via a private/internal IP even once, that's game over for them.
The Metropolitan Police Department has already started investigating GMO, so from here it's police territory.
Not sure if it legally counts as extortion or just intimidation, but still.
It wasn't even that much info though.
The data's just going to get sold elsewhere anyway — same as every other breached company, it's just that nobody knows where it's being posted anymore.
They're basically a wanted criminal now, so pretty much everyone except themselves is an enemy.
Who would they even sell it to?
Why that person was picked as the first one is probably being dug into hard, both inside the company and by the police.
Background and Key Points of This Story
GMO Internet Group announced on October 27, 2026 that it would pay condolence money of up to ¥3 million to customers whose personal information was exposed in an unauthorized access incident, with the payout calculated based on how much data was exposed. The attackers reportedly threatened to keep releasing information unless paid $50 million, which GMO refused; the attackers’ site subsequently went offline in what appears to be action taken by a US provider, and the Metropolitan Police Department has opened an investigation on suspicion of violating the Unauthorized Computer Access Law, among other charges. Opinion on the thread split between those praising the company for “not bowing to the demand” and those arguing that “even with the site down, the leaked information itself hasn’t disappeared, so this isn’t really resolved.” Some also pointed out that Western companies tend to pay hackers precisely to avoid facing massive damages claims from customers. Worth noting: Yusuke Katayama, cited in the thread as an example of a notorious attention-seeking hacker, was actually the perpetrator of the unrelated 2012 “remote-control virus” case — a separate past incident mentioned here only as a loose association, not a connection to this story.
※This article is an excerpt and summary from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyō G) thread “Hacker Who Threatened GMO Suffers Crushing Defeat lolololololololol.”
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