Does your company allow you to do business work on your personal
computer? If so, ensure it is properly protected.
The police force in Kyoto, Japan, have suggested that a virus
might be responsible for sensitive information regarding criminal
investigations being leaked onto the internet.
A total of 19 documents, including investigation reports and a
list of "wanted" suspects, prepared by a police officer on his
private laptop computer have appeared on internet peer-to-peer
file-sharing systems.
The officer, based at the Shimogamo Police Station in Sakyo
Ward, Kyoto, mentioned twenty individuals in the documents - at
least 11 of which were names of actual persons according to police.
According to one report, the officer entered into the documents
detailed descriptions of the crimes, alongside the names,
addresses, birthdays and other personal data of people believed to
be involved.
"The police authorities in Japan have claimed that the sensitive
files have been accidentally leaked onto the internet via
file-sharing software or a virus," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "The police force will regret
giving permission for this officer to use his personal computer for
this kind of work. All computers used for business should be
properly secured to avoid 'data leakage', and there should be
strict policies regarding whether internet file-sharing should be
acceptable on a work computer."
Kyoto police, who only found out about the incident when their
public relations department was informed, have said they have a
policy of prohibiting officers from saving information that they
learn in the line of their duty to the hard drives of their
personal computers. The officer concerned is being questioned about
the alleged violation.
Sophos recommends companies protect their email gateways,
desktops and servers with an automatically updated consolidated solution to defend against the
threats of viruses, spyware and spam.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.