BB = Barely Bothersome or Big Bucks?

Yesterday's Japan Times reported that on Friday, May 19, the Osaka District Court ordered BB Technology Corp., a Yahoo! BB ISP, to pay 6,000 yen (about $53.75 at today's exchange rate) in compensation to each of five former or current BB subscribers for the theft of their personal data from BB Technology's server. [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060520b1.html] On two occasions between June 2003 and January 2004, former employees of a company that was doing business with BB Technology reportedly stole personal information, including names, addresses, and telephone numbers, of about 11 million Yahoo! BB subscribers.

According to the article, the presiding judge said "the company failed to protect its customers' data from illegal access through such measures as regularly changing passwords." While the damages award is de minimis in this case, lawyers in Japan and elsewhere will likely pay close attention to the precedent it sets for future civil actions involving data breaches.