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Japanese Gov't Accidentally Shares Internal Email Over Google Groups
itwbennett writes "An official at Japan's Ministry of the Environment created a Google Group to share email and documents related to Japan's negotiations during a meeting held in Geneva in January, but used the default privacy settings, which left the exchanges wide open. According to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, over 6,000 items, including private contact information of government officials, was publicly accessible. Michihiru Oi, a ministry official, said the ministry has its own system for creating groups and sharing documents, but it doesn't always function well outside of Japan, sometimes leading to 'poor connections' and a 'bad working environment.'"
Default allow.
It's as secure as the desktop ca. 1995.
If you still take humanity seriously, it's only because you're dull.
This mistake should be the standard way of working for all governments.
So the article and summary hint at a common problem -- "the ministry has its own system for ... sharing documents", which "doesn't always function well outside of Japan". I've seen this in more than one enterprise, where the IT guys meet the need of users to securely move data around by buying or building a secure solution, and they pay very careful attention to the security, but less attention to the usability. Users will go for ease-of-use every time, and aren't thinking about security, so mistakes like this happen.
The obvious solution is to make the secure system easy to use, but usability itself is hard to get right, secure usability is very hard.
2*3*3*3*3*11*251
Come on guys. You can't make it too easy for the NSA or they'll suspect a honey pot.
The scary thing is that they were using Google a private US company to share private international secrets. This is just sloppy in my opinion. I mean.. come on how seriously are they trying to protect this sensitive information if they are uploading it to third party servers which probably never delete data and just deep freeze it?
They've already accepted that Google has all of their information anyhow.
That's ok...the NSA has all the data already anyway...
The only person who cares is the person who accidentally posted it.
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
How much of it was tentacle porn?
Laws are actually drafted by government officials and they insert enough language to protect their tails.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I know, I know. Japan has a very competent national defense force and they are all a great bunch of guys.
I was just about to say something about this... Given past history, you'd likely be accused of "hacking" for going onto a publicly accessible Google Group.
Your privacy might be worth a lot to you, but to Google it's something they can sell for $$$. Google makes cash out of selling ads. Not out of protecting privacy.
Um no?
Only people with security clearances are not allowed to view classified information without authorization, at risk of losing their clearance.
It's not illegal for everyone else to view it. See pentagon papers FFS, and the government does due diligence to keep classified information secret including punishing those who leak it, EVEN accidentally, WTF are you talking about? We can even get in trouble for not having the proper cover sheet for classified papers.
I"m surprised a Googler has not spoken up. I'm administrator for several Google Apps Business accounts and the source article is inaccurate. The default settings are to not share groups with outside domains. I really doubt the product marketed to governments is less restrictive than the Google Apps for Business. I don't work for Google - I'm an independent small business consultant.
I spotted a mistake in the post but will fix it for you real quick.
"An ex-official no longer at Japan's Ministry of the Environment created a Google Group to share email and documents related to Japan's negotiations during a meeting held in Geneva in January, but used the default privacy settings, which left the exchanges wide open."
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.