The hangover: Japanese city admits data was lost after party – Science & Tech

A Japanese town has been left with more than a headache after admitting that an entrepreneur lost a USB key containing personal data of all 460,000 residents at a party.

The western city of Amagasaki said on Thursday that a private contractor, whose name has not been disclosed, carried the flash drive during after-work drinks.

But the individual, who was working on a municipal pandemic relief program, lost the bag containing the USB key on Tuesday evening.

“We deeply regret having deeply damaged public confidence in the city administration,” an Amagasaki official said at a press conference.

The information was copied to the USB drive for easy transfer to a call center near Osaka.

It included the names, genders, addresses, birthdays and other personal information of everyone in the city, as well as tax data and bank account information for some residents, the city said.

But there may be a silver lining, as the city claims the data was encrypted and the USB key locked with a password. So far, officials said, there was no indication that the information had been accessed.

The loss was reported to the police, who are investigating.