Genetic information and ancestry reports of U.S. citizens were among the information stolen in the cyber attack:
23andMe proposes to compensate millions of customers affected by a data breach on the company's platform, offering $30 million as part of the settlement, along with providing users access to a security monitoring system.
The genetic testing service will pay the amount to approximately 6.4 million American users, according to a proposed class action settlement filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Sept. 12. Personal information was exposed last year after a hacker breached the website's security and posted critical user data for sale on the dark web.
[...] According to the settlement proposal, users will be sent a link where they can delete all information related to 23andMe.
[...] In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, 23andMe Communications Director Andy Kill said that out of the $30 million aggregate amount, "roughly $25 million of the settlement and related legal expenses are expected to be covered by cyber insurance coverage."
Also at USA Today, Fox Business and The Verge.
Previously:
- 23andMe Tells Victims it's Their Fault that Their Data was Breached
- 23andMe: Profiles of 6.9 Million People Hacked
- 23andMe Says Private User Data is Up for Sale After Being Scraped
« Exploding Pagers: Actual Cyber War? | Firefighters Use 50,000 Gallons to Battle Electric Vehicle Fire »
Related Stories
Records reportedly belong to millions of users who opted in to a relative-search feature:
Genetic profiling service 23andMe has commenced an investigation after private user data was been scraped off its website
Friday's confirmation comes five days after an unknown entity took to an online crime forum to advertise the sale of private information for millions of 23andMe users. The forum posts claimed that the stolen data included origin estimation, phenotype, health information, photos, and identification data. The posts claimed that 23andMe's CEO was aware the company had been "hacked" two months earlier and never revealed the incident. In a statement emailed after this post went live, a 23andMe representative said "nothing they have posted publicly indicates they actually have any 'health information.' These are all unsubstantiated claims at this point."
23andMe officials on Friday confirmed that private data for some of its users is, in fact, up for sale. The cause of the leak, the officials said, is data scraping, a technique that essentially reassembles large amounts of data by systematically extracting smaller amounts of information available to individual users of a service. Attackers gained unauthorized access to the individual 23andMe accounts, all of which had been configured by the user to opt in to a DNA relative feature that allows them to find potential relatives.
[...] The DNA relative feature allows users who opt in to view basic profile information of others who also allow their profiles to be visible to DNA Relative participants, a spokesperson said. If the DNA of one opting-in user matches another, each gets to access the other's ancestry information.
Hackers have been able to gain access to personal information from about 6.9 million users of genetic testing company 23andMe, using customers' old passwords:
In some cases this included family trees, birth years and geographic locations, the company said.
After weeks of speculation the firm has put a number on the breach, with more than half of its customers affected.
The stolen data does not include DNA records.
[...] As was first reported by Tech Crunch, the company has acknowledged that by accessing those accounts, hackers were then able to find their way into "a significant number of files containing profile information about other users' ancestry".
The criminals downloaded not just the data from those accounts but the private information of all other users they had links to across the sprawling family trees on the website.
The stolen data includes information like names, how each person is linked and in some cases birth years, locations, pictures, addresses and the percentage of DNA shared with relatives.
I'm with Bill Burr on this.
See also: 23andMe Says Private User Data is Up for Sale After Being Scraped
Facing more than 30 lawsuits from victims of its massive data breach, 23andMe is now deflecting the blame to the victims themselves in an attempt to absolve itself from any responsibility, according to a letter sent to a group of victims seen by TechCrunch:
"Rather than acknowledge its role in this data security disaster, 23andMe has apparently decided to leave its customers out to dry while downplaying the seriousness of these events," Hassan Zavareei, one of the lawyers representing the victims who received the letter from 23andMe, told TechCrunch in an email.
[...] But in a letter sent to a group of hundreds of 23andMe users who are now suing the company, 23andMe said that "users negligently recycled and failed to update their passwords following these past security incidents, which are unrelated to 23andMe."
"Therefore, the incident was not a result of 23andMe's alleged failure to maintain reasonable security measures," the letter reads.
Zavareei said that 23andMe is "shamelessly" blaming the victims of the data breach.
"This finger pointing is nonsensical. 23andMe knew or should have known that many consumers use recycled passwords and thus that 23andMe should have implemented some of the many safeguards available to protect against credential stuffing — especially considering that 23andMe stores personal identifying information, health information, and genetic information on its platform," Zavareei said in an email.
"The breach impacted millions of consumers whose data was exposed through the DNA Relatives feature on 23andMe's platform, not because they used recycled passwords. Of those millions, only a few thousand accounts were compromised due to credential stuffing. 23andMe's attempt to shirk responsibility by blaming its customers does nothing for these millions of consumers whose data was compromised through no fault of their own whatsoever," said Zavareei.
Previously:
- 23andMe: Profiles of 6.9 Million People Hacked
- 23andMe Says Private User Data is Up for Sale After Being Scraped
Since it was founded nearly two decades ago, 23andMe has grown into one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world. Millions of people have used its simple genetic testing service, which involves ordering a saliva test, spitting into a tube, and sending it back to the company for a detailed DNA analysis.
But now the company is on the brink of bankruptcy. This has raised concerns about what will happen to the troves of genetic data it has in its possession.
The company's chief executive, Anne Wojcicki, has said she is committed to customer privacy and will "maintain our current privacy policy".
But what can customers of 23andMe themselves do to make sure their highly personal genetic data is protected? And should we be concerned about other companies that also collect our DNA?
[...] 23andMe has had a rapid downfall after the 2021 high of its public listing.
Its value has dropped more than 97%. In 2023, it suffered a major data breach affecting almost seven million users and settled a class action lawsuit for US$30 million.
Last month its seven independent directors resigned amid news the original founder is planning to take the company private once more. The company has never made a profit and is reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy.
What this might mean for its vast stores of genetic data is unclear.
Previously:
- 23andMe Proposes $30 Million Payment for Data Breach
- 23andMe Tells Victims it's Their Fault that Their Data was Breached
- 23andMe: Profiles of 6.9 Million People Hacked
- 23andMe Says Private User Data is Up for Sale After Being Scraped
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday September 19, @12:38PM (1 child)
"Hey, all your genetics and ancestry information, along with your personal info like address and phone number, were stolen. Here's $4, be happy. Your privacy is worth less than a 6" sub to us."
Vote for Pedro
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19, @05:21PM
"Hey, you were dumb enough to provide all your genetics and ancestral information along with your personal info like address and phone number to a 3rd party in exchange for a piece of paper. Your privacy is worth less to you than knowing you're 1% ashkenazi."
My mother did it. My sister did it.
Both were shocked when I told them I had zero desire to hand over genetic information to "big tech", the CIA, China, and insurance companies in order to develop "birds of a feather" bioweapons or to hand it over to insurance companies so they could find new ways to deny insurance coverage.
If you haven't realized we're no longer in a war for your name, address, city, state, zip, and credit card number, you're probably one of the morons who would gladly submit your data for use in the new war on genetics information.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Thursday September 19, @12:44PM (3 children)
What is a data breach?
If they sell data and make a profit, that's "business as usual"
If they sell data and don't make a profit, that's "financial fraud" because they claim to be a real profitable startup or whatever.
If they give away the data to anyone with any form of government ID, that's "security theater" which we've had since before 9/11
It seems that all a data breach means in practice, is they didn't intend to give away your data to 3rd parties for free. But rest assured, they were always planning on giving away your data. Its not a privacy issue merely a profitability and business profit issue.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Username on Thursday September 19, @01:59PM
23andme was angry that a customer resold the data available to them. Took some kind of action against them probably. Then other customers took action against 23andme since lawyers smelled money.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Frosty Piss on Thursday September 19, @05:01PM (1 child)
23AndMe has *never* been profitable, and indeed is currently flushing itself down the commode.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/18/23andme-directors-resign [theguardian.com]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 20, @11:37AM
ooof I pulled a graph and its a 2K era dotcom ski slope from being worth $4B to being worth roughly whats in the petty cash account right now.
So yeah, they're not going to be around much longer.
Who gets to buy their data when they shutdown, LOL?