Genetic secrets revealed. Hackers stole and sold the data of thousands of clients of a DNA testing company
December 4, 22:50 Share:
23andMe customer data was stolen by hackers (Photo: News Mag / Flickr)
23andMe, which creates reports on people's ancestry based on DNA samples, has been attacked by hackers. Thousands of customers' data has been stolen and put up for sale.
In early October, 23andMe announced that hackers had stolen some of its users' data by hacking victims' accounts en masse through password guessing.. As a result, cybercriminals obtained information not only about the victims themselves, but also about people associated with them – thanks to the DNA Relatives function, which searches for possible genetic relatives, writes TechCrunch.
Last week, the company told the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it was investigating the incident and determined that hackers had gained access to 0.1% of its customer base.. In the company's latest earnings report, 23andMe announced that it has “ more than 14 million customers worldwide”, so at least 14 thousand people were affected.
The stolen data, 23andMe said in a statement, included ancestry information and health information based on the user's genetics.. Some of this data was published by hackers online.
In October, advertisements began appearing on hacker forums offering to purchase stolen 23andMe customer data.. The hackers promised both a database of a million Ashkenazi Jewish users and the data of individual leak victims for $1-10.
After the leak, 23andMe forced users to change their passwords and asked them to enable multi-factor authentication. Starting November 6, the company required all users to enable two-step verification to log into their personal account on the site.
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