Hacking of trading accounts in Japan spreads to mid-sized firms

[TOKYO] Criminals have targeted mid-sized brokerages in Japan after the country’s biggest securities firms added additional protection for online trading. 

Okasan Securities and Iwai Cosmo Securities both said they had been hit by fraudulent trading. Iwai Cosmo said a third party had gained access to client accounts and conducted illicit trades in Japanese equities. Okasan did not give details of what happened. 

The hacking of online trading accounts has exploded in Japan, surging more than 10-fold in April from March. The Financial Services Agency said on Wednesday (May 14) that from January through April, fraudulent trades stemming from account takeovers totalled US$2.1 billion across 3,505 transactions, underscoring the growing scale of the threat.

Criminals first targeted 10 of the country’s largest brokerages, which have responded with new safeguards. Rakuten Securities hasn’t suffered any unauthorised logins since May 2 after upgrading its online trading tools and enhancing security features, according to a company spokesperson.

The sector is increasingly turning to multi-factor authentication as a defence measure.  BLOOMBERG