JETRO - Japan External Trade Organization

07/31/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/01/2024 04:01

Notice: Loss of external hard drive containing personal information

The Japan Food Products Overseas Promotion Center (JFOODO) has lost an external hard drive (hereinafter referred to as "the HDD") on which data containing personal information of persons who participated its projects was recorded.
Please note that the personal information recorded on the HDD includes the names of individuals, organizations/companies, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, but does not include system IDs, passwords, bank account details, or credit card information.
We sincerely apologize for any trouble and concern that this incident may cause. We take this incident very seriously and are committed to reinforcing the proper management of information to all JETRO and JFOODO staff and relevant parties. We will make every effort to prevent a recurrence of such incidents.

Please be cautious of any fraudulent activities that may misuse the announcement of this incident. Please note that our staff will never request personal information over phone or via email regarding this matter.

Location where the device went missing

Japan Food Product Overseas Promotion Center (JFOODO) office
(7F Ark Mori Building, 1-12-32 Akasaka, Minato Ward, Tokyo)

Information stored on the HDD

The HDD contained information for people and companies who participated in JFOODO projects:

  1. Information with company/organization names and individual names (without contact details): 14,436 cases
  2. Information with company/organization names and individual names (with email addresses and phone numbers): 5,960 cases (including 331 JETRO staff members)

Background

On June 14, the HDD was reported missing after confirming that it was not in its designated storage location and there are no records of its use. We have promptly conducted a search within the department, and checked whether any staff might have accidentally taken it home. However, it has not been found at this time, and the search is ongoing.
On July 2, the incident was reported to the Japanese Government's Personal Information Protection Commission after it was determined that the HDD contained personal information.

Measures to prevent a recurrence

Under our Privacy Policy, JETRO has established a system and rules for the management of personal information that includes the safe and secure handling of the personal information of our clients. We take the occurrence of this matter very seriously and will comprehensively review our management of personal information and recording media. We will also delete any unnecessary personal information as per our information retention policy. In addition to this, we will appropriately adjust our management systems to prevent a recurrence.