Personal information on about 3,400 convicts or detainees and some 2,300 prison employees was leaked onto the Internet after a prison officer's computer was infected by a virus, Justice Ministry officials said Wednesday.

A ministry investigation into the case, which was reported Feb. 3, found that the leaked information included the names of people who had been in prison or detention facilities in Fukuoka and Shiga prefectures, most of whom have been released, they said.

More than 10,000 pieces of data went onto the Internet after an officer at Kyoto Prison ran a CD on his computer containing work data from another officer at Kagoshima Prison.

The ministry discovered the Kagoshima prison officer got the CD from another officer. It plans to reprimand the officers involved.

The prison officers have told the ministry they believed the information would remain between them and not be leaked, the officials said.