OANDA Confirms Unauthorized Trades After GMO Cloud Incident

OANDA Securities confirmed Monday that unauthorized third parties accessed some customer accounts and placed trades using ID and password combinations that may have been exposed through an external server service.

The broker limited trading on potentially affected accounts and said it had not established that intruders accessed its core systems or took data from them. OANDA did not disclose the number of accounts or trades involved or the amount of any losses.

Onamae.com Desktop Cloud, operated by GMO Internet, is a server service used to run MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. Credentials stored in the environment can provide access to accounts at separate brokers.

AvaTrade Japan and Gaitame Finest have also confirmed unauthorized trades on some customer accounts. Goldenway Japan, which operates FXTF, said Oct. 22 that improperly obtained credentials might have enabled unauthorized logins or trades; its notice did not confirm completed trades.

By 10:50 p.m. ET Oct. 23 (02:50 UTC Oct. 24), GMO Internet said its probe had identified security flaws, confirmed unauthorized access and found that customer information had left the company. An Oct. 22 update identified 26,739 servers as potentially affected, not as confirmed intrusions or affected broker accounts.

GMO will pay ¥5,000 to every current Desktop Cloud customer, regardless of financial loss. The company will also cover eligible realized losses and fees from unauthorized trades it verifies were caused by the incident. Market-movement losses, missed profits and indirect damages are excluded.