Leak of personal data from 4000 people at Toyama University

Toyama University has revealed that one computer belonging to the Toyama Unit Center under the university’s Medical Department was infected by seven types of malware when the PC downloaded free software in early June.

The Toyama Unit Center participated in the national survey of children’s health and environment by the Japanese Ministry of Environment to elucidate what kind of impact chemicals in the living environment would have on children’s health.

About 5,300 parents and children who reside in the Toyama Prefecture, central part of the Japanese mainland, participated in the survey between February 2011 and March 2014.

The infected PC has personal information belonging to about 4,000 of 5,300 people such as the name, date of birth, area to live, and past birth and illness history of mothers in six cities or towns in the prefecture.

The Ministry of Environment requested each unit center to store personal information in PCs which are not connected to the Internet, but the university stored part of the personal information on a different PC, which professors use.