Japan's Digital Agency Says 246,000 Personal Records May Have Leaked From Its Government Work Platform
Japan's Digital Agency said on Sept. 11 that about 246,000 records of personal information may have leaked from the shared work platform it runs for government offices, after an intruder exploited a flaw in a VPN device used for remote connections.
The platform, called the Government Solution Service, is the common working system used by staff across Japanese government bodies. In its notice, the agency said the records that may have been taken belong to those staff and to people who worked with them, and that no personal information about the general public was in the affected files.
On June 25, the agency detected that a large number of files on a server had been accessed through an account belonging to a maintenance and operations worker, and opened an investigation. On July 9, it identified the cause as a third party that had broken in through the VPN device. It suspended the account the same day and cut off the compromised device's communication with the outside. It carried out the investigation with an external specialist.
The files that may have leaked, the agency said, contained names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and street addresses. About 189,000 of the records relate to staff of the bodies that use the platform and to public officials working alongside them, and about 57,000 to businesses and individuals involved in that work. The files do not include My Number identifiers, Japan's national ID numbers, or bank account or pension numbers.
The agency said it will identify the people whose data may have been exposed and contact them one by one, and that it has so far confirmed no misuse of the information. It warned those affected to watch for fraudulent emails, phone calls, and text messages using its name, and said it never asks for passwords or credit card details by email or phone.
It also plans to review how it manages vulnerabilities and to change the way its systems connect to outside networks.
