Following the huge cryptocurrency hack of Coincheck in Japan, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) led a series of on-site inspection of cryptocurrency exchanges to evaluate the security measures upheld by these companies. GMO Coin was one of the many crypto-exchanges who was sent an order to improve their business. In response, GMO Internet, the operator of GMO Coin announced to the “Group Information Security Audit Office” that they will develop a better security measure to safeguard customer information.
Takeshi Miyazaki, the “knowledgeable security expert” for GMO Internet has plans to include external advisors on security as well. As stated, the establishment presently aims to, “protect important customer information from increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks by our highly secured countermeasures and pursue to improve group information security literacy and foster security personnel.”
It seems GMO Coin is taking their warning from FSA rather seriously. Besides the current developments, the exchange had also informed users through their website that the company had already submitted the FSA-requested business improvement plan to Kanto Local Finance Bureau.
They also reached out to their user base comprising of customers and stakeholder and
“sincerely apologize for the inconvenience”, adding, “We deeply reflect on taking this administrative punishment seriously […] and steadily improve the system risk management system by implementing [an] improvemen[t] plan, so that we can offer service[s] [so] that customers can feel secure and safe.”
Apart from the crypto-exchange GMO Coin, their operators GMO Internet also have their feet embedded in crypto mining, which they announced last year in September. Back then, GMO Internet expressed their desires to corner 6% of the BTC market by 2018. Now, considering this current setback, it is to be seen if the company can live up to their plans.
Now, even though GMO has adopted the new stricter regulatory supervision in Japan, and aims to improve their service, some other crypto-exchanges have already shut down. Binance, a well-known crypto exchange has also taken their service away from Japan and announced a new office in Malta.