GMO Internet Group and GMO Internet held a briefing on November 2 about unauthorized access to their services. The session ran three hours, and several moments departed from how a press conference normally unfolds.
The briefing was split into two parts. The first covered the sequence of events and an apology. Part two, billed as an explanation of knowledge gained from the incident, had group CEO Masatoshi Kumagai set out his views on cyber threats and his vision, along with the company's management philosophy.
A reporter asked why time at an apology and status briefing had gone to philosophy and the threat posed by AI. Kumagai replied that a company is built on its philosophy, and that his life is GMO and half of his life. "Time is life," he said. "Apart from sleep there are only 990 minutes in a day. I held part two so you would understand where the hourglass of life is pointing."
He went on to say he wants to build a safe internet, but that AI has changed the situation, and that some people have not noticed. If the year's first attack counts as one, he said, hackers' attacks are now at 100 a day. "I wanted people to notice that," he said, describing part two as an attempt to prompt awareness of the threat.
The unauthorized access concerned Onamae.com Desktop Cloud, a service the group offers. The briefing was held in Tokyo.