DNA Company 23and Me Reveal Hackers Gained Access to Data of 6.9 Million Users
Jose Nino
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23andMe, the world’s premier genetic testing company, recently experienced a high-profile data breach incident which calls into question its privacy policies.
The company previously admitted that a security breach had compromised the personal information of roughly 14,000 customers. This breach has apparently snowballed, with the hackers gaining access to “a substantial amount of files with ancestral profile information of additional users.”
According to a TechCrunch report, 23andMe spokesperson Katie Watson said to TechCrunch that nearly 7 million users had had their data exposed by the breach. This figure is much larger than the 14,000 that was initially reported.
Watson revealed that the breach dealt with the personal information of roughly 5.5 million users who had agreed to take part in 23andMe’s DNA Relatives feature. The compromised data consists of users’ names, birth years, relationship labels, percentage of shared DNA with relatives, ancestral reports, and self-disclosed locations.
On top of that, Watson revealed that an audience of roughly 1.4 million, who chose to use the DNA Relatives feature, discovered that their Family Tree profile was accessed in an unauthorized manner by hackers.
Although she did not provide concrete numbers, Watson noted that this unauthorized access consisted of information such as display names, birth years, self-disclosed locations, relationship labels, and users’ disclosure preferences.
All in all, having personal information online is still a major gamble. Yes, the government is bad, but the private sector is capable of pulling off shady behavior. Hence, the need for both public and private sector accountability.
In this epoch, no one can be trusted. As a result, one must have a scrutinizing eye on any entity that deals with sensitive personal information.
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