Insider swiped personal data from 7.6 million contracts with Japanese education firm

A systems engineer assigned by a staffing agency to work at a branch of Benesse Corp. is accused of duplicating the data to resell for profit.

Tokyo police arrested Masaomi Matsuzaki, 39, on July 17.

“The data are believed to have been sold to software developer Justsystems Corp. via multiple name-list traders,” the Nikkei Asian Review reports. “The massive theft came to light after Justsystems used the Benesse customer data purchased in May” to send out direct mailings in June.  

Police suspect he accessed the education services provider’s customer database using his ID, and then copied the personal information from at least 7.6 million clients to a removable media device.

“During questioning, Matsuzaki acknowledged that he copied the customer data and sold the information to a dealer for several million yen,” Asahi Shimbun reports.