Japanese man loses USB stick with entire city's personal details

One quirk of Japanese culture and especially work culture is that while it&#x27;s highly efficient and safety-oriented most of the time, when they do drop the ball, they really DROP THE BALL.<p>Like the time two workers at a nuclear reactor almost created a critical mass in a bucket: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;world-nuclear.org&#x2F;information-library&#x2F;safety-and-security&#x2F;safety-of-plants&#x2F;tokaimura-criticality-accident.aspx" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;world-nuclear.org&#x2F;information-library&#x2F;safety-and-sec...</a>

They found it: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mainichi.jp&#x2F;articles&#x2F;20220624&#x2F;k00&#x2F;00m&#x2F;040&#x2F;100000c" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mainichi.jp&#x2F;articles&#x2F;20220624&#x2F;k00&#x2F;00m&#x2F;040&#x2F;100000c</a> Looks like someone found his bag and handed it over to the police. (Sorry, can&#x27;t find an English article yet)

Important detail:<p>&gt; Luckily for the man, city officials said the data contained on the drive is encrypted and locked with a password.<p>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.

&gt; But the embarrassing incident prompted an apology from officials, with the city&#x27;s mayor and other leaders bowing in apology to residents.<p>&gt; &quot;We deeply regret that we have profoundly harmed the public&#x27;s trust in the administration of the city,&quot; an Amagasaki city official told a press conference.<p>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&#x27;m being cynical.

This 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.

One 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.

Headline should really read: Japanese man loses password-protected encrypted USB stick.

[dupe] or rather, an earlier update on the story that [spoiler] USB key found. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=31859806" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=31859806</a>

2050: moron earthling loses holographic diamond with the neural and genetic data of whole Earth.