- Japanese electricity giant reveals it lost a disk containing the data of millions of customers
- The drive was left in an apparently unlocked cabinet
- Nearly 11 million customers at risk, but no banking or card data affected
A Japanese energy giant has apologized after losing a physical storage drive containing the data of millions of its customers.
Kyushu Electric Power Co. employees apparently misplaced the drive, which had been left in an unlocked cabinet, the company said in an official statement.
The disk reportedly contained information on up to 10.9 million accounts, including customer names, electricity usage data and phone numbers – although the company said no bank account or credit card information was stored.
Go on the run
Kyushu Electric Power Company, one of Japan’s largest regional utilities, provides electricity throughout the Kyushu region, which has an overall population of approximately 12.5 million and includes major prefectures such as Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Kagoshima.
In its announcement, the company explains that IT staff regularly perform backups to manage server storage.
He added that due to capacity constraints, on April 27, 2026, an external storage device was used for this task.
This disk was then stored in a server room cabinet protected by multiple layers of physical security – a place to which only 57 people had access.
However, when IT staff went to retrieve the drive on May 26, they found that the case remained 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 questioning all staff who entered the server room, but the drive was nowhere to be found.
“The company is investigating all possibilities, including unauthorized removal of the device, but it has not yet been located,” its announcement said.
The incident has now been reported to Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission and relevant government authorities, with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry apparently giving Kyushu Electric until July 8, 2026 to report full details of the incident and preventative measures taken.
Via Computer beeping
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds.
