Tech problems hamper OANDA Japan FX services for several hours
The issue, which emerged around 3am Japanese time, was reportedly resolved at 12:54pm Japanese time.
The Japanese subsidiary of online trading services provide OANDA reported system problems today, as some of the customers of the broker had been unable to log in into MT4 for more than 9 hours.
The company reported that the issues had affected its Tokyo MT4 server (OANDA Japan FX MT4) – the source is the Equinix TY3 data center. In particular, the system failure occurred at the bridge connecting the OANDA contractual system and the MT4 server.
The problem was initially detected around 3am (Japanese time) and the service was restored at 12.54pm (Japanese time). The company is now reviewing the bridges that failed in order to prevent any future occurrences of such events.
On July 5, OANDA Japan also reported of server issues – for about 10 minutes transactions were not allowed due to problems with the New York server.
OANDA Japan has recently beefed up its security systems in order to provide customers with better protection. In April this year, the company implemented security reinforcement measures at logging in seeking to prevent unauthorized access. It warned traders that their accounts will be temporarily locked if one of the following cases applies:
· Account information is entered incorrectly more than 5 times at login;
· The account owner has not traded for more than one year.
Security measures are on the mind of other online trading companies too, especially in Japan, where cyber attacks have targeted payment services providers and Forex brokers. GMO-Z.com Coin, the newly launched crypto-currency exchange business of GMO Internet Inc (TYO:9449), is planning to bolster customer safeguards in light of the rise of cyber attacks worldwide.
In a brief announcement, the company explains that users of the service will soon have to switch to 2-factor authentication. This should be done by Friday, July 7, 2017. Those that do not switch will be blocked from withdrawing Japanese yen and from sending virtual currency to an external wallet.
