A Japanese man in his 40s got drunk during dinner and lost a hard drive containing sensitive data from more than 465,000 residents of the city of Amagasaki, northwest of Osaka.
The city government statement said the person, who has not been named, is an employee of a company providing benefits to tax-exempt families. The HD also contained confidential information, including tax details, names and bank account numbers, as well as information about families receiving state aid, such as day care payments.
According to state TV NHK, the man had gone to a restaurant in the possession of HD. He got drunk and fell asleep on the road. When he got up, he saw that the bag in which he had kept the item had disappeared.
According to City Hall, the hard drive is encrypted and there have been no reports of any leaks so far. Despite this, the Mayor of Amagasaki and other officials apologized to the public during a press conference on Thursday (23).
He said that while the employee was authorized to access the data, he was not allowed to transfer it to a different electronic device.
The mayor’s statement criticized the employee for not erasing data from the flash drive after completing her work at City Hall and for carrying it in person instead of using a secure mode of transportation.
