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Japanese man loses USB stick with entire city's personal details
- Wowfunhappy 4y agoImportant detail: > Luckily for the man, city officials said the data contained on the drive is encrypted and locked with a password. Assuming it’s encrypted properly, I reckon the data is safer on a lost USB stick than on any internet-connected computer. Better if it was a not-lost USB stick, of course, but it happens.
- hatmatrix 4y agoI would find the use of the word "luckily" to be offensive here, as it's more to do with strategy when handling sensitive data outside of the office.
- yieldcrv 4y agoLucky that someone was able to be in a decision making position to implement the strategy
- effingwewt 4y agoThis made me laugh so hard thank you. I always think of Japanese culture as being patient enough to do things right. From the care taken by the conductors pointing at signs to make sure they pay attention to them, to the way everything has its place, and no corners are cut. Makes it seem surprising when something does happen, and even then, it's not nearly bad as it could have been thanks to the encryption. Of course, I'm just an outsider but I've always marveled at their culture. Here in the US people would have been lambasted, sued, fingers pointed, firings, PR pieces, a PR firm would be hired to make a statement, etc. Edit added line 'to the way everything has its place, and no corners are cut.'
- fomine3 4y agoOur expectation for random IT people is very low. Password could be [townname]2022 and encryption could be very weak ZipCrypto.
- Wowfunhappy 4y agoThe alternative is a password and encryption which could be just as bad but is also connected to the public internet. On a usb drive, the range of possible attackers is comparatively miniscule.
- batshibstein 4y agobut even that reduces the attack surface from "literally anyone could stick this in their PC and read the data" to "basic amount of technical literacy and curiosity required"
- grose 4y agoThey found it: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20220624/k00/00m/040/100000c https://mainichi.jp/articles/20220624/k00/00m/040/100000c Looks like someone found his bag and handed it over to the police. (Sorry, can't find an English article yet)
- Kaibeezy 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31859806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31859806
- dmos62 4y ago> But the embarrassing incident prompted an apology from officials, with the city's mayor and other leaders bowing in apology to residents. > "We deeply regret that we have profoundly harmed the public's trust in the administration of the city," an Amagasaki city official told a press conference. Public officials acting accountable is refreshing. On a side note, I wonder how anyone found out about this. Presumably he could have just gone back to work and made another copy. Maybe I'm being cynical.
- nobody0 4y agoOne of the most important links of the chain to keep sensitive data safe is to collect less but the motivation behind this is rather small, private or public sector.
- suction 4y agoOne quirk of Japanese culture and especially work culture is that while it's highly efficient and safety-oriented most of the time, when they do drop the ball, they really DROP THE BALL. Like the time two workers at a nuclear reactor almost created a critical mass in a bucket: https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/tokaimura-criticality-accident.aspx https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-sec...
- 1-6 4y agoI’m not sure if it’s a quirk of the culture in general. I think it’s more pleasing that there’s great transparency which allows the world to learn from mistakes.
- suction 4y agoThere's not though, quite to the contrary. Did you witness the handling of the Fukushima accident? The Japanese proverb for it is: "Kusai ni futa wo shire" - if there's a stink, put a lid over it.
- soraminazuki 4y agoSadly, there's nothing noteworthy about corporations trying to evade responsibility for screwups no matter where we are on the globe.
- suction 4y agoAh, Whataboutism - the most Japanese fallacy.
- soraminazuki 4y agoYour racist remark aside, huge for-profit entities act unethically because of economic incentives. It's ridiculous to assert that it's something ingrained into a country's culture.
- dougSF70 4y agoHeadline should really read: Japanese man loses password-protected encrypted USB stick.
- cproctor 4y agoThis offers a poetic reflection on scale. Some essential aspect of the city, shrunk down to a memory stick and lost on the street in a night of drinking.
- ChrisArchitect 4y ago[dupe] or rather, an earlier update on the story that [spoiler] USB key found. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31859806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31859806
- LeonTheremin 4y ago2050: moron earthling loses holographic diamond with the neural and genetic data of whole Earth.