Drunk Japanese man loses entire Amagasaki city's personal data
Getting drunk can turn everything upside down in the blink of an eye. A drunk man in Japan's Amagasaki city proved alcohol to be a social menace when he lost a flash drive containing personal data of the city's half a million residents! The man worked for an IT company, BIPROGY, which was hired by Amagasaki's government to list citizens eligible for tax exemptions.
The USB drive contained confidential data of over 4,60,000 residents of Amagasaki including their date of birth, bank account numbers, tax details, and addresses. The man copied the information onto his USB drive to transfer it to another information center. However, instead of wiping the drive later and storing it in the designated location, the man in his 40s put it in his bag.
After keeping the USB drive in his bag, the man went out for drinking with four of his colleagues at a local restaurant in Osaka prefecture. After they parted ways, the man passed out on the street and found his bag missing when he woke up in the wee hours the following day. He later informed his employer about the missing bag.
Following the incident, the location information of a mobile phone present in the bag was confirmed. The employee was asked to recollect the drunken night and he tried to retrace his steps from a foggy memory. Police officers accompanied the man in searching for the bag, and it was recovered from the premises of an apartment in Suita City, Osaka, with the USB drive.
There have been no reports about data breaches so far as the data was encrypted and locked with a password. However, Mayor Kazumi Inamura of the city assured that the Amagasaki officials will still access whether any data has been compromised or not. "We sincerely apologize for causing great inconvenience and concern to the citizens," the Mayor said in a press conference.
As soon as the report of the incident went viral, the city's lines were flooded with more than 30,000 complaints and calls from citizens who were worried that their data might be used by potential scammers for identity theft and fraud. BIPROGY President Akiyoshi Hiraoka issued a public apology and assured that the company will review and educate the officers, employees, and contractor-affiliated companies.
