> Luckily for the man, city officials said the data contained on the drive is encrypted and locked with a password.
Assuming it’s encrypted properly, I reckon the data is safer on a lost USB stick than on any internet-connected computer. Better if it was a not-lost USB stick, of course, but it happens.
I always think of Japanese culture as being patient enough to do things right.
From the care taken by the conductors pointing at signs to make sure they pay attention to them, to the way everything has its place, and no corners are cut.
Makes it seem surprising when something does happen, and even then, it's not nearly bad as it could have been thanks to the encryption.
Of course, I'm just an outsider but I've always marveled at their culture.
Here in the US people would have been lambasted, sued, fingers pointed, firings, PR pieces, a PR firm would be hired to make a statement, etc.
Edit added line 'to the way everything has its place, and no corners are cut.'
but even that reduces the attack surface from "literally anyone could stick this in their PC and read the data" to "basic amount of technical literacy and curiosity required"
> But the embarrassing incident prompted an apology from officials, with the city's mayor and other leaders bowing in apology to residents.
> "We deeply regret that we have profoundly harmed the public's trust in the administration of the city," an Amagasaki city official told a press conference.
Public officials acting accountable is refreshing. On a side note, I wonder how anyone found out about this. Presumably he could have just gone back to work and made another copy. Maybe I'm being cynical.
One of the most important links of the chain to keep sensitive data safe is to collect less but the motivation behind this is rather small, private or public sector.
One quirk of Japanese culture and especially work culture is that while it's highly efficient and safety-oriented most of the time, when they do drop the ball, they really DROP THE BALL.
I’m not sure if it’s a quirk of the culture in general. I think it’s more pleasing that there’s great transparency which allows the world to learn from mistakes.
Your racist remark aside, huge for-profit entities act unethically because of economic incentives. It's ridiculous to assert that it's something ingrained into a country's culture.
I beg to differ. It's not ridiculous at all. The go-to retort to any kind of mild criticism for Japanese is people is to say "but country x or person y did the same, too!"
I have never heard this in nearly the same frequency or predictability from members of any other culture. It's almost cute in how revealing it is when you hit their weak spot.
You could praise or criticize Japan all you want, but either way your reasoning remains flawed. Corporate greed and accountability evasion is an artifact of human nature, but you attribute it to race and culture instead. Your only justification of that is the equivalent of "because everyone disagrees with me in the same way."
> It's almost cute in how revealing it is when you hit their weak spot.
What's actually revealing is how you were quick to assume my nationality and spit out racist insults.
Your nickname says you're either weeaboo or Japanese (I guess the first).
And it's 100% Japanese culture that creates these types of dangerous accidents. South Korea has them too, because they culturally so close (confucianism and remnants of feudalism being at the core of the problem).
Most definitely not. Japanese working culture is notorious for rigidity, lack of transparency, and slow decision-making. Workers are exploited, despite few possibilities for promotion, wildly unreasonable expectations are common. Many employees work for 80 or more hours each week, with many of those hours considered unpaid overtime. Even after the workday is over, workers are expected to spend their free time socializing with colleagues outside of work. Workers who take measures to improve their mental health are met with a level of stigma, and many are told to simply get some rest, while at the same time suffering constant pressure to always be working with no time to relax.
I agree with you - I'm very aware of the dark side and would not recommend to anyone working in Japan. But even when the people suffer like you described, they do their work efficiently (exceptions apply) because there's some kind of nationalistic mindset of "we can't embarrass Japan" that keeps them going against their nature.
This offers a poetic reflection on scale. Some essential aspect of the city, shrunk down to a memory stick and lost on the street in a night of drinking.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 60.0 ms ] thread> Luckily for the man, city officials said the data contained on the drive is encrypted and locked with a password.
Assuming it’s encrypted properly, I reckon the data is safer on a lost USB stick than on any internet-connected computer. Better if it was a not-lost USB stick, of course, but it happens.
I always think of Japanese culture as being patient enough to do things right.
From the care taken by the conductors pointing at signs to make sure they pay attention to them, to the way everything has its place, and no corners are cut.
Makes it seem surprising when something does happen, and even then, it's not nearly bad as it could have been thanks to the encryption.
Of course, I'm just an outsider but I've always marveled at their culture.
Here in the US people would have been lambasted, sued, fingers pointed, firings, PR pieces, a PR firm would be hired to make a statement, etc.
Edit added line 'to the way everything has its place, and no corners are cut.'
On a usb drive, the range of possible attackers is comparatively miniscule.
> "We deeply regret that we have profoundly harmed the public's trust in the administration of the city," an Amagasaki city official told a press conference.
Public officials acting accountable is refreshing. On a side note, I wonder how anyone found out about this. Presumably he could have just gone back to work and made another copy. Maybe I'm being cynical.
Like the time two workers at a nuclear reactor almost created a critical mass in a bucket: https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-sec...
The Japanese proverb for it is: "Kusai ni futa wo shire" - if there's a stink, put a lid over it.
I have never heard this in nearly the same frequency or predictability from members of any other culture. It's almost cute in how revealing it is when you hit their weak spot.
> It's almost cute in how revealing it is when you hit their weak spot.
What's actually revealing is how you were quick to assume my nationality and spit out racist insults.
And it's 100% Japanese culture that creates these types of dangerous accidents. South Korea has them too, because they culturally so close (confucianism and remnants of feudalism being at the core of the problem).
Most definitely not. Japanese working culture is notorious for rigidity, lack of transparency, and slow decision-making. Workers are exploited, despite few possibilities for promotion, wildly unreasonable expectations are common. Many employees work for 80 or more hours each week, with many of those hours considered unpaid overtime. Even after the workday is over, workers are expected to spend their free time socializing with colleagues outside of work. Workers who take measures to improve their mental health are met with a level of stigma, and many are told to simply get some rest, while at the same time suffering constant pressure to always be working with no time to relax.
It's like end-stage America, if anything.
That kind of mindset is stereotypical of the 1940s maybe, but would be regarded as crazy today for someone just going about their work.
Japanese people, like many other are proud. Rightly so, it’s an amazing culture. But it’s not efficient one. At least not now.
If the whole world just keeps mindlessly repeating this trope, they’re never going to try improve and get with the times.
It’s a highly inefficient and backwards society of late and really could do with modernising.