``We couldn't protect our customers.'' President Kumagai is angry at the attacker - GMO unauthorized access

"We sincerely apologize for not being able to protect our customers." Masatoshi Kumagai, chairman and president of GMO Internet Group, held a press conference in Tokyo on the 2nd and apologized for the delay in responding to security issues that were raised by group companies two years ago. In his first press conference since the discovery of the unauthorized access, he expressed his anger towards the attacker.

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Mr. Kumagai, who appeared in a black suit at 3:30 p.m., began the press conference by apologizing for posting a photo of himself smiling in a social media post about the incident, and bowed deeply along with the executives who took the stage. Even after that, he said, ``I've continued to tell people to protect information for the sake of our customers,'' he said, choking at times.

According to GMO, the attacker infiltrated the management server on August 17th and sent "malware" (malicious software) to customer servers, but the company did not notice it until October 20th, when the customer pointed it out. Hiroshi Yamashita, vice president of the company's subsidiary, reiterated, ``We will verify this in the future.'' Mr. Kumagai was also asked about the delayed response even after a group company pointed out to him two years ago, and he explained, ``From the time of the outbreak until today, we have been working 24 hours a day to minimize the damage to our customers.''

GMO has maintained a stance of not responding to demands for money from attackers, and on the 27th of last month, the personal information of one person was made public. Kumagai reiterated, ``Their biggest goal is money. We will not do anything to encourage (the attackers).'' ``We cannot leave the industry while the Internet remains a tool for criminals,'' he said.

A 58-year-old male trader from Fukui Prefecture who was affected by the incident said in an interview, ``I appreciate the sincere apology,'' but when asked about the explanation for the delayed response, he said, ``The responsibility is unclear. I can't accept it.''