Personal information on about 3,500 users of Web sites at two companies and a university has been leaked via the Internet, company and university sources said Wednesday.
Tokyo-based Nihon University said personal information was leaked on about 1,800 people who applied for a graduate correspondence course via the Web.
The university on Saturday discovered an Internet message board explaining how to view data, including the names, addresses and age of the applicants. The school temporarily shut down its Web site to fix the problem.
In a similar case, an Internet message board gave details of how to view personal information on around 1,500 people who applied for travel brochures from All Nippon Airways World Tours Co., a travel agency affiliated with All Nippon Airways, between January 1999 and January 2001. The data included names, addresses and e-mail addresses.
Information on 242 people who contributed opinions on TV programs to the Web site of NTV Enterprises Co., an affiliate of Nippon Television Network Corp., was also revealed over the Internet recently, company sources said.
The university and the two companies have informed police and are calling on anyone suffering damages from the disclosure to contact them.
On Monday, Kommy Corp., a beauty-treatment service firm, said personal information on more than 37,000 users of its Web site was leaked over the Internet.