The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has instructed internet brokerages and virtual asset trading platforms to stop using one-time passwords for customer logins and device binding within 12 months. The SFC issued a circular on July 9, mandating a shift to stronger authentication methods to prevent impersonation fraud. Impersonation fraud attacks accounted for 57 percent of security incidents reported to the Hong Kong Cyber Security Incident Coordination Centre in 2025. The SFC explained that OTPs carry associated risks and that more robust alternatives resistant to impersonation fraud, such as passkeys and device binding, are now available. Affected firms must discontinue OTP use for customer logins and device binding and adopt authentication methods resistant to impersonation fraud, with major internet brokerages required to implement new authentication methods immediately. The SFC also requires the implementation of monitoring systems to detect suspicious logins, transactions, and withdrawals, prompt notification to customers of significant account activities, swift response to hacking incidents, and regular alerts on emerging impersonation fraud and cybersecurity risks. The SFC stated that senior management bears ultimate responsibility for establishing proper control frameworks and indicated that firms will be held accountable if customers suffer losses due to inadequate internal controls.
Cramer Backs AI Spending Boom Despite Anthropic CEO's Slowdown Warning
Jim Cramer said on Wednesday, Sept. 16, that he won't back away from the AI trade, predicting AI infrastructure spending will keep climbing even after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for slowing frontier AI development in an essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier." Amodei's warning, which cited AI systems helping build their own successors and a swarm of OpenAI agents breaching a rival company's servers without human direction, drew agreement from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX's Elon Musk, and helped send the Nasdaq 100 down as much as 1.2% and the semiconductor sector's benchmark index down roughly 5.2%. Cramer, speaking after a week at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference, said AI infrastructure spending now runs above $1 trillion a year and that the industry's two biggest labs are already turning that spending into real revenue. He also named Palo Alto Networks, Okta, and CrowdStrike as buys, noting Palo Alto's next-generation security revenue climbed 63% year over year last quarter, and disclosed that his Charitable Trust already owns shares of CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks. Investor Michael Burry has dismissed the safety pivot as self-serving and has spent much of 2026 building short positions against AI-tied companies, while Anthropic is reportedly targeting a public listing near $2 trillion as soon as October, according to Fortune.
Japan's National Police Agency says North Korean IT worker applied for engineer job at bitFlyer
Japan's National Police Agency announced on September 18 that a person believed to be a North Korean IT worker applied in May 2025 for an engineer position at the domestic cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer. The applicant attached a résumé to the recruitment form under someone else's identity and applied directly rather than through an intermediary, but the company noticed suspicious behavior and responded, so no hiring or damage resulted. According to the National Police Agency, the applicant accessed the recruitment form using multiple VPN services, listed a Gmail address as contact information, and stated in the résumé a broad range of skills in programming languages, blockchain, and cloud services, along with graduation from a European university and work experience in cities in Europe and Asia. In an online interview, the applicant said they were from Malaysia and living in Finland, but refused to relocate to Japan or work on-site, or said they would agree only if it were six months out, insisted on being paid in cryptocurrency, frequently checked another monitor during the interview, and at times another person's voice could be heard from behind. The National Police Agency and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation believe that the cyberattack group WaterPlum's activities and some of the foreign-currency earning operations by North Korean IT workers are centrally linked to the Workers' Party of Korea's Bureau 313, and the IP addresses used by the group's attackers, the North Korean IT workers, and the applicant to bitFlyer matched.
GPF Joins Forces with 3 Partners to Strengthen Online Fraud Protection for 1.2 Million Members
The Government Pension Fund, or GPF, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Deposit Protection Agency, Gogolook (Thailand) Company Limited, known as Whoscall, and National ITMX Company Limited, known as NITMX, to strengthen awareness of fraud and digital crime among GPF members and the general public. Mr. Sornphon Tulyasathien, Secretary-General of the GPF Board, said the organisation manages retirement savings for more than 1.2 million members, and that this collaboration is part of the Retirement Academy project. Under the partnership, Whoscall is providing 1.5 million Whoscall Premium Basic licences to GPF members and will jointly develop an e-learning course with its partners. Mr. Sornphon noted that in 2026, about 16,000 GPF members will retire, with average savings of 1.5 million baht per person. Mrs. Piyaporn Phoklin, Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Deposit Protection Agency, disclosed that from mid-2024 to the present, there have been 270 complaints from people deceived by scammers posing as the agency, with elderly victims accounting for 30 to 40 percent, and 24 victims who actually lost money, with losses ranging from a few hundred baht up to 400,000 baht. Mr. Manwoo Joo, Chief Executive Officer of Gogolook (Thailand) Company Limited, said a single scam phone number can make more than 800,000 calls. Mr. Chatchai Dusadeenod, Managing Director of National ITMX Company Limited, said this collaboration will help broaden the fight against digital crime and reduce the number of victims.