Japanese electricity giant apologises after physical drive with data of 10.9 million clients goes missing

Date:
Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:25:00 +0000

Description:
Millions of clients have valuable data exposed after drive goes missing.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Japanese power giant reveals it lost drive containing data of millions of clients Drive was left in an apparently unlocked cabinet Nearly 11 million clients at risk, but no bank or card data was affected A Japanese energy giant has apologised after losing a physical storage drive containing the data on millions of its clients.

Workers for Kyushu Electric Power Co. apparently mislaid the drive, which had been left in an unlocked cabinet, the company explained in an official announcement . The drive allegedly contained information on up to 10.9
million accounts, including customer names, electricity usage data, and telephone numbers - although the company said no bank account information or credit card data was stored. Latest Videos From Watch full video here: Going AWOL One of Japan's biggest regional utilities, Kyushu Electric Power Company supplies electricity across the Kyushu region, which has an overall
population of around 12.5 million people, and includes major prefectures such as Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Kagoshima.

In its announcement, the company explains that the IT staff regularly
performs backups to manage server storage. You may like Utility giant Itron confirms cyberattack, says internal systems were accessed English learning
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It added that due to capacity constraints, on April 27, 2026, an external storage device was used for the task.

This drive was then stored in a server room cabinet protected by multiple physical security layers - a location which only 57 people had access to. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro
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However when IT staff went to retrieve the drive on May 26, they found that the cabinet had been left unlocked, and the driver was missing.

Kyushu Electric filed a police report on June 4, and the company says it has since conducted its own investigations, including interviewing all personnel who entered the server room - but the drive cannot be found.

The company is investigating all possibilities, including unauthorized
removal of the device, but it has not yet been located, its announcement noted.

The incident has now been reported to Japans Personal Information Protection Commission and the relevant government authorities, with the Japanese
Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry reportedly givingKyushu Electric until July 8 2026 to report all the details about the incident and the preventative measures taken.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/japanese-electricity-giant-apologises-after-phys ical-drive-with-data-of-10-9-million-clients-goes-missing


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