The personal data of more than one million Japanese citizens
have been obtained by hackers, Japan Pension Service (JPS), an organization which
manages Japan’s universal public pension system, said on Monday.
Toichiro Mizushima, president of Japan Pension System, told in
a news conference that the Japan Pension Service staff computers were accessed
by an external email virus, which led to the leak of almost 1.25 million cases
of personal data.
During the conference, he apologized for the leak. He said
that the combinations of names, identification numbers, birth dates and
addresses of the Japanese citizens had been compromised.
“The organization is setting up a team to investigate the
cause and prevent a recurrence,” Mizushima said.
According to a news report broadcasted on NHK public television,
Abe said, "These are the people's vital pensions. I have instructed Health
and Welfare Minister (Yasuhisa) Shiozaki to consider the pension recipients and
do everything possible,"
Shiozaki also apologized in the conference for failing to
prevent the personal data from the hackers. He had instructed the Japan Pension
Service to set top priority on protecting the public's pensions.