Japanese City Worker Loses Flash Drive Containing Personal Details of Every Resident (theguardian.com) 38
A city in Japan has been forced to apologise after a contractor admitted he had lost a USB memory stick containing the personal data of almost half a million residents after an alcohol-fuelled night out. From a report: Officials in Amagasaki, western Japan, said the man -- an unnamed employee of a private contractor hired to oversee Covid-19 relief payments to local households -- had taken the flash drive from the city's offices to transfer the data at a call centre in nearby Osaka. After spending Tuesday evening drinking at a restaurant, he realised on his way home that the bag containing the drive was missing, along with the personal details of all 460,000 Amagasaki residents. He reported the loss to police the following morning. The information included the residents' names, addresses and dates of birth, as well as details of their residence tax payments and the bank account numbers of those receiving child benefits and other welfare payments, according to the Asahi Shimbun. All of the information is encrypted and password protected, and there have been no reports of data leaks.
information is encrypted and password protected (Score:5, Informative)
Re:information is encrypted and password protected (Score:4, Informative)
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Right? Who has the time to read an ENTIRE eight sentence summary?
+1 to that
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There was a summary? I'm only here for the comments, and the top comment says information was encrypted and password protected. Everything is good in Slashdot world.
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That turns it into kind of a nice story. Encryption works (when used correctly). I hope the password was strong.
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This is a government we are talking about.
Re:information is encrypted and password protected (Score:4, Informative)
Let us hope that the encryption is good and the password is strong.
This is a government we are talking about.
Don't worry - they applied ROT13 twice!
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One has something like over 50,000 characters, while the others I don't think have 26.
Never would have happened (Score:3)
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It's already been found (Score:2)
Way to be hot on the case admins!
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You got a link to that? Neither the story linked in the article, nor the version I saw on CNN, have yet been updated with that. And you should just be impressed Slashdot is reporting the story the same day as other media outlets, rather than 3 days later. But instead you're gonna bitch that slashdot isn't aware of updates that probably only happened hours ago, and aren't yet covered by several other major media outlets either?
Re:It's already been found (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/n... [japantimes.co.jp]
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My favourite part of the story is that the USB sticks were in a bag and the bag was found later outside of an apartment building.
In the west this would have had one of 2 outcomes:
a) the bag is empty and discarded in the bushes a second after it was put down by the drunk owner.
b) anti-terrorism taskforce controlled-detonated the bag.
One of my friends lost their wallet on a busy Tokyo street one day. Walked back down the street to find the wallet sitting in a highly visible elevated position. All money and co
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Sneakernet (Score:2)
So, the circumstances are such that somebody felt it more expedient to walk the information to the destination. In addition, the data protection was such that this was apparently easily done. And, ostensibly, that the information could be consumed at the other end.
The people responsible for those circumstances are the ones that need serious talking to. This guy just needs a stern warning about toting company equipment around while drinking.
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This literally happens all the time, depending on the amount of data.
And if it's encrypted and password protected (and optionally biometric secured), it's both faster and far more secure than 'just sending it'.
The fact he went drinking with it needs to get him fired immediately, however.
...the bandwidth of a station wagon... (Score:2)
Good news (Score:5, Informative)
That's a lot of damage! (Score:3)
I've only ever lost my dignity on nights like that.
Johnny Moronic (Score:1)
I just uploaded a ram expander. Hit me.
Bartender: Whatever you say Mr. Sake
Former contractor (Score:2)
Flash drive in 2022? (Score:2)
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Don't they have a series of tubes over there? (Score:2)
If he had been on a British university, he would have lost it in the subway.
Old News (Score:3)
NOT city worker (Score:2)
The guy was a contractor. He may have worked for the city, but he was not a city worker (i.e. government employee).
Put the blame where it lies. With private industry. It's the same thing when you hear, "The Air Force exposed data. . ." only to find out it was a contractor who did the leaking.
For all the bitching some on here do when it comes to metric or imperial, or what units to use for energy since power doesn't equal energy, at least get the title right.
More details..... (Score:2)
The article here reports that he went drinking in a restaurant and then discovered his bag was missing on his way home. The local news in Japan provided a little more detail: The man apologized on national TV news yesterday for his carelessness. He actually went drinking a little more than suggested in the article here, and passed out on the street outside the restaurant where he was unconscious for some period of time. He woke up some time later and staggered home. He says he found his briefcase in hi
Re: More details..... (Score:2)