national

Top gov't transport official loses tablet with sensitive info while on train

23 Comments

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism has confirmed that a senior official lost a tablet computer which contained confidential information, while on a train on Friday night.

According to the ministry, the tablet was in a bag being taken home by Akihiko Tamura, director-general of the Civil Aviation Bureau, Fuji TV reported. Tamura was quoted by officials as saying that he fell asleep on the train on the Tokyu Denentoshi Line at around 11 p.m. and woke up at the end of the line at Chuo-Rinkan Station in Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture, after missing his station. He said the bag, which was in the overhead rack, was gone when he woke up.

Tamura's responsibilities include drawing up regulations for flying drones as well as drafting countermeasures against airborne terrorist attacks, Sankei reported.

The ministry-issued tablet contained emails and other data regarding the Diet, as well as sensitive information about the emergency contact network. A ministry spokesman said, however, the tablet was password protected and did not contain any confidential information that would jeopardize the ministry.

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23 Comments
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Maybe some on here will claim it's a conspiracy by the Japanese and American government to get tough on cyber-security together, as they did with the pension leak of info. But UNLIKE those conspiracy nuts, THIS is the kind of shining example of how Japanese officials lose sensitive information so easily. Moron.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Was he drunk? is the tablet encrypted? Why is sensitive data just left around like that? This guy is a boob and JP has no IT security at all.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Gogogo,

They do have IT security - it consists of removing the network cable and taping over the hole with sellotape. Stops any nasty viruses after that big mean American company Microsoft stopped supporting XP, so I hear ;)

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Check world stats. Japan is one of the best countries for IT security.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

And these clowns are in charge of things...

4 ( +6 / -2 )

We are all human beings. We are not perfect. We all make mistakes. We have to try to learn from these mistakes.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Come on Wikileaks!

Grab it quick!

6 ( +7 / -1 )

We are all human beings. We are not perfect. We all make mistakes. We have to try to learn from these mistakes.

It's true. The problem here is systematic, in that he was allowed to take the tablet in the first place.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

D'oh!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Is the password enctypted? Are all data encrypted when saved?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

he fell asleep on the train on the Tokyu Denentoshi Line at around 11 p.m. and woke up at the end of the line at Chuo-Rinkan Station in Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture, after missing his station

We all know what that means. It's a typical train ride for salarymen who over drinks.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I would love to know the actual location (country) of the posters who act like it's a huge "Japanese problem" when something like this happens. "Morons," "clowns," "idiots," "stupid police," yaddda yadda yadda. What a tiresome broken record!

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

"Japanese problem?" Japan has this story and the USA has Snowden.

"Stupid police?" They busted that guy who stole the Benesse customer info with no hesitation. Wish the American authorities would respond and investigate like that for data thefts. People who hold customer info. in Japan are scared into keeping it safe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

One thing that strikes me is that he is (was?) director-general of the Civil Aviation Bureau, which is a pretty high-ranking post, and yet he was using public transportation. I think this would be highly unusual in other countries.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

A ministry spokesman said, however, the tablet was password protected and did not contain any confidential information that would jeopardize the ministry.

If so, then no story. If not, then some better journalism, please!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

In USA, people commute in their cars. There is no such nice train system in USA Japan style careless worker?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Tessa: Darned if you do darned if you don't. If govt official doesn't use public transport, they'll sayhe thinks hhe's too good for that, if he does use, well..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japanese style error while commuting. Can't sleep in a car in USA.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

nishikat: They don't, Japan's IT security consists of keeping anti virus software upto date, for a government that is useless.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

OK, as soon as I hear a story on the scale of NSA/Snowden I might consider the possibility of what you are saying is true.

"a government that is useless." Did the police not arrest the guy for leaking all that info from Benesse company? Should this public entity have reacted differently in a way that would have made you feel they are not useless?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Do'h!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Hunter Brumfield. you don't think it's really stupid to take a government office tablet and lose it on the train? It's not a personal item, but one with government data on it. He should be extra careful with it, not treat it like it's his own tablet.

The other thing that prompted my remark about the 'clowns' running things is the data leak from the pension office. They weren't hacked! Employees opened email attachments they hadn't verified. Isn't that one of the first things you learn when using a computer, not to open any unknown attachments or files? The data that was stolen was stolen from the computers of employees who had not encrypted the data on their computers , thousands of people's names, addresses, dates of birth and pension numbers, all that you'd need to go and rob people blind....make up a fake driver's license (as the pension files don't include photos) using the leaked data and you could borrow money, buy property, the list of things that such complete data sets could be used for is endless. After that, this happened...don't they watch the news?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I bet he was drunk.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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