In Japan, in the city of Amagasaki, a man after work went to a bar with colleagues and lost a flash drive with personal data of all residents — almost half a million people.
This was reported by NBC News.
The man works for a company that provides benefits to tax-exempt households. He transferred the personal information of the residents of the whole city to a flash drive and then went to a bar with colleagues. The USB drive contained the home addresses and bank account details of each of Amagasakiʼs 460,000 residents, as well as information on households receiving state aid.
The man was holding a bag when he left the bar. But then he fell asleep on the street, and when he woke up at three in the morning, he went home. Six hours later, he called work to ask for a day off. On the same day, the man reported the disappearance of the bag and USB drive to his manager.
The man violated the company rules by transferring the data to portable media. The company has not yet decided how to punish him, "but will take strict measures." The company will also monitor the darknet to make sure there are no data leaks.
Given that the company was a subcontractor, the city government may also be responsible for inefficient control over data processing. The city council said it would set up a committee of external experts to investigate the incident and prevent it from happening again.