Public broadcaster NHK reported that the employee, a person in his 40s, fell asleep on the road after consuming alcohol at a restaurant. When he awoke, his bag containing the flash drive was gone.
The person works for an organization tasked with offering advantages to tax-exempt households, the town authorities’s assertion mentioned.
On Tuesday, he went to the town administration’s info middle and transferred residents’ knowledge onto a flash drive. The information included the names, start dates, and addresses of 465,177 individuals, the assertion mentioned — the town’s complete inhabitants.
The flash drive additionally contained delicate info together with tax particulars, checking account names and numbers, and knowledge on households receiving public help equivalent to childcare funds.
On Wednesday, the worker looked for the flash drive however could not discover it, so he filed a misplaced property report with the police, in line with the federal government assertion. Later that afternoon, the corporate notified metropolis authorities in regards to the loss.
The flash drive is encrypted, and no knowledge leak has been confirmed but, authorities mentioned within the assertion.
It added that although the worker had been approved to entry the information, he had not been given permission to switch it onto a separate digital machine. The assertion additionally criticized the worker for failing to erase the information from the flash drive after finishing his work on the metropolis workplace, and for carrying it personally as a substitute of utilizing a safer transportation technique.
Authorities held a information convention on Thursday, with the town’s mayor and different officers bowing in apology to residents.
The town will make funds to eligible households with out delays, and can present extra info on the case as they examine, mentioned the official assertion — which ended with a pointed reminder for presidency staff to get permission earlier than taking flash drives out of the town’s workplaces.
