The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on November 5 that its safety-status information system, which lets officials search nationwide records gathered at evacuation centers and hospitals, had been accessed without authorization by a third party. The agency has suspended the service and blocked outside access while it works out how far the intrusion reached.
The agency learned of the breach from Fujisoft, the contractor it has entrusted with operating and maintaining the system. No leak of personal data has been confirmed at this point, and the details remain under investigation.
What the system does
Local government officials enter safety-status information collected at evacuation centers and hospitals into the system from PCs. The agency built it and began running it in April 2008.
It was later modified to handle natural disasters as well as armed-attack contingencies. About 163,000 safety-status records were registered during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.