Rising phishing attacks have pushed IG Securities to tightenaccount protection, with the broker set to require all clients to enabletwo-factor authentication (2FA) by June.IG Securities confirmed that it will make 2FA compulsory forall users, replacing its current optional setup. The company linked the move toa sharp increase in unauthorized access attempts across the industry, driven byphishing scams and other methods targeting client credentials.“Unauthorized access to securities accounts through phishingscams and other means is rapidly increasing across the industry,” the companysaid in its notice.Mandatory 2FA RolloutOnce the new rule takes effect, clients who have notactivated 2FA will be unable to log into their accounts. Users who alreadycompleted the setup will not need to take further action. The broker urged clients to enable the feature in advance toavoid disruptions. It warned that support teams may face a surge in requestsaround the implementation period.Related: IG Japan Halts Retail Vanilla Options Trading Three Months After LaunchThe setup process requires users to install anauthentication app, such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator,and enable 2FA through the IG trading app settings. The process takes a fewminutes to complete.IG Japan recently admitted to mishandling client data afteruncovering two separate issues involving “specific personal information,”including Japan’s My Number identification details. The broker said some employees within the wider IG Group hadunauthorized internal access to customer records via an internal system,potentially affecting 162,879 clients whose names, dates of birth, addresses,contact details, and My Number data could be viewed. The firm said it does notknow when this internal access problem began.IG Japan Faces Data Handling Questions In a second issue, IG Japan reported that data for 29,734customers was stored on an external server managed by IG Markets Limitedwithout prior approval from IG Securities, following a contractor oversightaround late January 2026. IG Japan suspended new vanilla options trades for retail clients, only three months after launching the product for individual investorsin February. It remains unclear whether this step was related to securityrisks. The pause came as the broker continues to offer vanilla options tradingto corporate clients, a segment it added earlier when it expanded the servicebeyond retail.The restriction applies solely to individual accounts, whileexisting retail positions can still be closed on the platform and expiringcontracts will settle as usual. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.