Cost of hangover: Japanese man loses USB drive with entire city's personal data after night out

It is a hangover that this Japanese worker would rather forget soon as he lost a USB drive that had the entire city’s personal details after a night out with his colleagues.

A private contractor, whose name has not been disclosed, lost the memory stick that has personal data on all of its 460,000 residents of the western Amagasaki city, northwest of Osaka, after going for drinks this week.

The employee of a company was commissioned to assist the city’s rollout of COVID-19 relief funds.

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Public broadcaster NHK reported that the worker, a man in his 40s, fell asleep on the street after drinking alcohol at a restaurant. When he woke up, his bag containing the flash drive was gone.

The lost USB drive has data of residents’ names, addresses and dates of birth, as well as the bank account numbers of welfare-receiving households, among other information.

So far, there has been no evidence of data being leaked so far, the city officials said.

"We deeply regret that we have profoundly harmed the public's trust in the administration of the city," theAmagasaki official told a press conference, according to AFP news agency.

The employee reported to the police on Wednesday. However, there is a silver lining. The data was encrypted and protected with a password, according to the city.

“We will thoroughly ensure security management when handling electronic data,” the Japanese Times quoted city officials’ statement.

“We will work to regain our residents’ trust by heightening awareness of the importance of protecting personal information.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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