GMO Internet Group has asked Japan’s government to use its new active cyber defence powers against hackers who breached one of its services. The company made the request on Saturday, after the attackers demanded money.

In a stock exchange filing on Saturday, GMO said it wants state agencies to trace, block, and neutralise the attackers’ infrastructure. It said this would be the first use of the powers, which took effect on 1 October amid a wave of data leaks .

The breach hit Onamae.com Desktop Cloud. The service rents out Windows servers to traders who run automated foreign-exchange tools such as MT4 and MT5 around the clock.

Up to 26,739 servers may have been affected, GMO said in an earlier incident report . The intruders planted malicious software on some customers’ servers, which may have exposed the trading logins stored there. From 21 October, customers reported trades they did not make.

The attackers then demanded payment, according to GMO.…