According to the article of Yomiuri Shimbun, the Tokyo District Court has ordered an Internet service provider to reveal the name and address of a person who used file-swapping software to spread leaked private information on the Internet of about 110,000 Kanagawa prefectural high school students in fiscal 2006.
IBM Japan Ltd., which had filed for a provisional injunction against the prefectural board of education and the Internet service provider seeking the offender’s name and address, announced the decision Friday. The decision was dated Feb. 26.
According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, it was the first instance in which a court granted a request to disclose a name and address via a provisional injunction, though there had been a previous case in which a court order was issued during a trial, which involves more complicated legal procedures than a provisional injunction.
The information had been spread by a personal computer infected with a virus that uploaded the information to the Internet via file-swapping software. The computer had been used by an IBM Japan subcontractor’s employee involved in developing an account-transfer system.
In December, IBM Japan had asked the Internet service provider to disclose the name and other information of an individual who had taken data of students’ private information, including names, address and bank account numbers for paying school fees, and made the information freely accessible to other file-swapping software users.
After the Internet service provider rejected its request, IBM Japan on Feb. 9 sought the provisional injunction, saying it needed to protect confidential information it learned while conducting business. IBM Japan also had filed for a separate provisional injunction against the individual in question after information on the person was disclosed, to prevent the recurrence of information leakage. The district court on March 6 reportedly decided to grant the second injunction.
According to the prefectural board of education, the information leaked on the Internet had already been disseminated, but the court’s decision cannot halt the further spread of the data by other Web users.
