JICE developed and manages the Portal site of ‘Master's Degree and Internship Program of African Business Education Initiative for Youth (ABE Initiative)’ based on the contracts with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). JICE detected unauthorized accesses to the Portal site and confirmed the leakage of email addresses and log-in passwords of 1,219 ABE Initiative participants and ex-participants, 6 applicants, 652 staff members of accepting universities, 102 African youths who made inquiries to the Program in the past, 2 staff members of JICA and 3 staff members of JICE (total 1,984 users). We confirmed that no other personal information than email addresses and log-in passwords of above mentioned 1,984 persons had been accessed.

JICE sent out e-mails with apology and notification to affected users. We tender the deepest apologies to all affected users for the concern and inconvenience this has caused.

The Portal site has been closed, and is now under full log review back to when the Portal site was established. We will report to affected users if further leakage are detected on this log review.

JICE commits itself to reinforcing the information security on the Portal site and its internal control in an effort to restore users’ trust.

1　Detailed outline of the case

（1） From late April 2020, JICE ran a vulnerability assessment on the Portal site of ABE Initiative to upgrade and strengthen our security.

（2） We discovered the vulnerability on the Portal site during the process of the assessment, and confirmed the unauthorized accesses after the log review. We also confirmed that no other personal information than email addresses and log-in passwords of above mentioned 1,984 persons had been accessed.

（3） The Portal site is currently closed and cannot be accessed. We are running full log review back to when the Portal site was established.

（4） On June 12th, 2020, JICE sent out e-mails to affected users to explain the detail of the case and to apologize.

2　Recurrence prevention measures

（1） As a part of reinforcing the information security of the Portal site, JICE will run vulnerability assessment regularly and devise countermeasures to monitor and to prevent unauthorized accesses.

（2） JICE will request all users to change the log-in password and also to change password frequently when reopening the Portal site.

JICE will exert our utmost efforts for further improvement of system security on the Portal site and also strives to enhance its internal control for safety browsing of users.

3　Inquiries regarding this matter

Consultation counter for Personal Information
Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE)
Tel. +81(Japan)+(0)3-6838-2702
Email address：privacy@jice.org