A city in Japan has been forced to apologize after a contractor admitted he had lost a USB memory stick containing the personal data of almost half a million residents after an alcohol-fueled night out.
After spending Tuesday evening drinking at a restaurant, he realized on his way home that the bag containing the drive was missing, along with the personal details of all 460,000 Amagasaki residents. He reported the loss to police the following morning.
Of course, such an unpleasant situation could be completely avoided if the USB drive was encrypted with software such as USBCrypt.