JAPAN — Three officers in the Japanese Navy who swapped porn files between their computers also may have leaked sensitive information concerning Japan’s missile defense system, according to the Reuters news service.Japanese police reportedly launched an investigation last week, after an officer in the navy who is married to a Chinese national was found to have brought home a data disk containing information on Japan’s advanced Aegis radar system.
According to Reuters, the naval officer told police he accidentally copied the sensitive data to his computer’s hard drive when copying porn files from a computer belonging to a crew member from another destroyer in the Japanese fleet.
A third officer also copied data on the Aegis system while intending to copy pornography, according to Japanese media reports.
Officials from the U.S. military, which also uses the Aegis system, said they are keeping an eye on the situation.
“I’m aware of the ongoing investigation,” said commander of U.S. forces in Japan, Bruce Wright, according to Reuters. “We take operational security very seriously in the U.S. military. I know the Japan Self-Defense Forces also take operation security seriously.”
Japanese police suspect that senior officers must have been involved in the data swap, because none of the three officers had security clearances authorizing them to access the Aegis system data.
