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Data is leaked from Japanese bank's computer system
Copyright ) 1998 Nando.net
Copyright ) 1998 The Associated Press
TOKYO (January 5, 1998 5:30 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- A company
hired by a major Japanese bank to write a software program is under
investigation for allegedly stealing sensitive information on about
20,000 of the bank's customers, police said Monday.
An employee with the software company allegedly approached a Tokyo-based
mailing-list firm in November about a possible sale of the data. But
that firm, which sells information to corporations planning direct-mail
campaigns, alerted Sakura Bank, saying the data on the bank's depositors
was "too detailed."
Tokyo police were questioning officials from the software company, which
has not been named, to determine whether the employee stole the data
from the very computer system he was hired to improve, police sources
said.
The disk and other materials allegedly offered for sale included
assorted financial data on 19,900 Sakura's customers, including the
status of any loans they had taken out and details on their family
budgets.
Bank spokesman Nobuo Iwata said the data could not have been leaked by
Sakura employees. He did not elaborate.
After learning of the security breech, Sakura took action to prevent the
software company from gaining access to additional customer data, he
said.
Sakura Information Systems Co., an affiliate of the bank, had hired the
computer company to develop software that would speed up data retrieval.
The company, which police sources said is affiliated with a major
trading house, subcontracted the assignment to another firm, which told
police the data was leaked sometime between Nov. 2 and 8. Police did not
identify the subcontractor.
Police are looking into the possibility that employees with the
subcontractor may have taken the data or that an outsider could have
hacked into the subcontractor's computer system, according to sources.
Sakura Bank is one of the world's largest and has 14.5 million
individual savings accounts -- tops among Japanese banks.
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