14 DAY TRIAL // According to the Japanese Self Defense Force, two officers lost a USB device containing information on a military exercise that was a joint venture of the Japanese and the US military that took place in western Japan in February 2007; the memory stick had maps concerning unit deployment on it. The officers responsible were reprimanded, reports ComputerWorld.
It would seem that the USB device in question had a rather long journey. It was initially stolen last year in February by a captain of the GSDF (short for Ground Self-Defense Force) along with 2,000 yean and an airline coupon worth 10,000 yen. The 33 year old captain was suspended for one month for his actions and the media was partially informed about the situation. I say partially because Shigeru Ishiba, Japan's Minister of Defense, decided it would be better not to inform the press about the USB device. He felt that if the public found out about the missing memory device they would be interested in the sensible information it contained.
The recovered USB device was then borrowed by a lieutenant colonel who in turn gave it to a sergeant first class. The sergeant carelessly left it unsupervised on his desk and consequently the memory stick was thrown away.
Luckily for the three officers tin question the data on the memory stick was not "sensible" enough for them to be criminally prosecuted. The information on the device, and the device itself, should have been treated with care and precautions so that it does not end up in the wrong hands.
This is not the first time that the Japanese military manage to lose sensitive information. At the beginning of last year, data of the Aegis missile system leaked thanks to a senior navy officer. In a separate incident, a military officer put military information in jeopardy by installing file sharing software on his computer. All these incidents do not bode well for the Japanese who are trying to convince the US to sell them the F22 Raptor.