A Guy Got Drunk Enough to Lose An Entire City’s Personal Data

You go out drinking for a night on the town, down a few drinks, only to wake up with something that isn't yours. Maybe it is a flash drive that holds the personal information of half a million people, if it is the case of a contractor working out of Japan.

NHK first reported the incident late last week, saying that the man was a contractor working for the city of Amagasaki, which was hardest hit by the coronaviruses. The details about those specific residents were held on a single flash drive, which somehow ended up in a bag that he took with him for a Wednesday bender.

He woke up on the street near the bar. There is a bag and a flash drive. We know that the guy had a bad night, but we don't know what he had on that drive. Quite a bit of data was found on that humble drive. He had lost.

• Basic information for all 460,517 Amagasaki citizens—including their names, birthdays, addresses, genders, and “date of becoming a resident.”
• Tax information for about 360,573 residents, along with intel about which tens of thousands of households were given certain tax exemptions.
• Account information from about 86,000 households receiving welfare benefits, child support, or both.

If that intel gets out, it will be a sticky situation. According to the incident report, the worker was authorized to process data outside of the city's halls, but Amagasaki officials didn't check up on him to make sure he was following protocols.

The report states that the files were password protected, but people still weren't happy. Within two days of that incident report going out, local reports noted the city's lines were flooded with over 30,000 calls and complaints from citizens worried that this data could be used for identity theft or fraud. A notice was quickly put up to alert people about potential scam artists posing as local officials and demanding money to get their data back.

The good news is that the bag was found quickly by the police, and there was no evidence that anyone tried to change the password or steal the device. The contracting company apologized in the local Amagasaki press and the mayor did the same.

The city is trying to determine if any of that data has been leaked. The contractor had a good night on the town.