m-FILTER® Ver. 4.8 Available with Functions to
Search/Delete Individual Numbers in Email Archives
～Enhanced features for “My Numbers” to address growing demand by the financial industry～

TOKYO, Japan (November 9, 2016) – Digital Arts Inc. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; CEO Toshio Dogu; “Digital Arts”; Code 2326), a provider of information security software and solutions, announced the release of a new version to its enterprise-grade email security software for businesses and public-sector, m-FILTER Ver. 4.8, available today.

In accordance to the Japanese Social Security and Tax Number (“My Number”) system enforced on January 1, 2016, businesses are now required to take appropriate steps to safely store and prevent data loss of Individual Numbers. The Guideline issued by the Personal Information Protection Committee^*1 states to “discard or delete Individual Numbers as soon as possible when documents related to social security and taxation have exceeded storage period stipulated by applicable laws”. This rule also applies to non-printed materials, such as electronic data. With the increase of handling Individual Numbers in retail and corporate transactions, the financial industry, including banks and securities companies, are in a greater need to secure measures to safely store such personal information.

Considering that this guideline applies to electronically stored Individual Numbers, Digital Arts thinks it is desirable to delete emails messages and attachments that contain personal data from email archives as quickly as possible in the event of a mis-transmission, before administrative processing terminates as required by law for documents without a fixed storage period, or before the end of the storage period for documents with a fixed storage term saved in a separate system, such as e-Document management systems.

The latest update enhances features on m-FILTER Archive to comply with “My Number” guidelines. In the new version of m-FILTER, the “My Number detection” option at no charge available to all users searches Individual Numbers in email message bodies, subject fields and attachment file names. With an additional subscription option^*2, users can also search Individual Numbers in contents within attachments. “My Number detection” option utilizes Check Digit^*3, a form of redundancy check stipulated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to detect digits that are presumably Identification Numbers, allowing users to determine and manually delete emails containing corresponding digits. An administrator with permission is now able to quickly delete corresponding emails together with personal Individual Numbers in the event that such data are found in archive message bodies and attachments despite corporate intentions.

My Number Detection Option on m-FILTER Ver. 4.8

Additionally, this update provides greater user convenience for Lit i VIEW EMAIL AUDITOR for m-FILTER, a subscription-based optional feature on m-FILTER Archive provided by FRONTEO, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan; CEO Masahiro Morimoto).

The increasingly globalized world sees a growing importance in effective data loss preventive measures for email transmissions among overseas businesses. Digital Arts strives to enhance its m-FILTER series to stop the loss of sensitive information from within by responding to client needs of blocking mis-transmissions, preventing targeted attacks, and providing effective archive and spam solutions.

• *1 Personal Information Protection Commission“Guidelines for Proper Handling of Specific Personal Information (for Private Entities)” issued on December 11, 2014 (partially amended on January 1, 2016)
• *2 m-FILER File Scan Option (available by subscription) is required to search contents within attachments.
• *3 Individual Numbers are detected by the use of Check Digit. Check digit is a form of redundancy check for error detection on Individual Numbers based on computations stipulated by applicable laws and regulations. The “My Number detection” option utilizes Check Digit for its character check, realizing higher precision in detecting Individual Numbers.