Ex-M'bishi UFJ Securities worker arrested over taking of client data+

TOKYO, June 25 Kyodo -
A former Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. employee was arrested Thursday on
suspicion of taking out client information through unauthorized access to the
firm's database.
Following the arrest, the Financial Services Agency issued a business
improvement order to the brokerage house demanding that it improve its business
administration system and other operations and asked the company to report on
its improvement steps by July 3.
The agency also issued an advisory to the brokerage to take corrective measures
based on a law on protecting personal information, the first time the agency
has issued such an advisory to a securities house.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, 44-year-old Hideaki Kubo, who
the securities firm dismissed and reported to police in April, took personal
data on about 1.48 million clients by copying it on a compact disc on Feb. 4
after accessing the database using a temporary employee's identification codes
on Jan. 26.
Mitsubishi UFJ Securities President Fumiyuki Akikusa apologized again for the
incident to clients and pledged to take preventive steps.
''We acknowledge again the gravity of the incident which came about because of
our inadequacy in managing information and vow to take measures to ensure
information security,'' Akikusa said in a news conference in Tokyo, adding the
firm will ''swiftly'' submit the report to the FSA.
The president of the brokerage arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. also
voiced hope the arrest could act as a ''deterrent'' for firms that bought the
information not to use it or return it to the brokerage as such information was
obtained illegally.
The brokerage said Kubo was able to use the temporary employee's identification
codes as its staff in charge of deleting IDs failed to delete the ID of the
temporary employee who was transferred.
Kubo, a deputy manager at the Tokyo-based firm's computer system department and
a resident of the city of Chiba east of Tokyo, was in a position to know the
IDs and passwords of several other employees, having engaged in computer system
development, the police said.
The police said they arrested him on the charge of theft for allegedly stealing
the firm's CD, worth 65 yen, as well as a violation of the law banning
unauthorized computer access, because taking out information does not
constitute theft under the Criminal Code.
The police added they suspect Kubo took the data to make money off it because
he said during the firm's internal probe that he was in trouble with consumer
finance debt.
According to the brokerage, Kubo took home data on almost all of its clients by
copying it on the CD, and edited it by transferring the data to his computer at
home.
In mid-February, he sold data on about 49,000 clients for about 320,000 yen to
dealers that sell personal information, who resold the data to 95 firms, the
brokerage said.
After some customer inquiries, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities uncovered the
situation on April 8 through an internal probe.
To date, the brokerage said it has received more than 15,000 complaints from
customers.
In addition to the client information in question, the brokerage also unveiled
that Kubo had also sold information used in the firm's business to a dealer
that sells personal information.
The president declined to reveal the details of the client information, citing
that doing so would affect the police investigation.
The brokerage said that the client information, other than what has already
been revealed to the media, will not cause further damage as it was taken out
in the form of electronic data that has been retrieved and confirmed not to
have been duplicated.
Founded in October 2005 through the merger of Mitsubishi Securities Co. and UFJ
Tsubasa Securities Co., Mitsubishi UFJ Securities has a workforce of roughly
6,500 and a network of about 130 operation bases in Japan and abroad.
Slated to integrate operations with Morgan Stanley's Japan unit by next spring,
it posted 45.4 billion yen in net losses on operating revenues of 465.8 billion
yen in the business year ended in March.
==Kyodo
2009-06-25 21:24:02