DNA testing agency 23andMe has been fined £2.31m by a UK watchdog over an information breach in 2023 which affected hundreds of individuals.
The Data Commissioner’s Workplace (ICO) mentioned the corporate – which has since filed for chapter – didn’t put ample measures in place to safe delicate person knowledge previous to the incident.
“This was a profoundly damaging breach that uncovered delicate private data, household histories, and even well being circumstances,” mentioned Data Commissioner John Edwards.
23andMe is ready to be bought to a brand new proprietor, TTAM Analysis Institute, which mentioned it had “made a number of binding commitments to reinforce protections for buyer knowledge and privateness.”
23andMe’s customers have been focused by what is called a “credential stuffing” assault in October 2023.
This noticed hackers use passwords uncovered in earlier breaches to entry 23andMe accounts for which individuals had used the identical or comparable credentials.
They have been in a position to entry 14,000 particular person accounts – and, via these, obtain data regarding about 6.9m folks linked to as doable relations on the positioning.
In response to the ICO, this included entry to non-public knowledge belonging to 155,592 UK residents, corresponding to names, yr of start, geographical data, profile photos, race, ethnicity, well being studies and household bushes.
Stolen knowledge didn’t embody DNA data.
“As a type of impacted instructed us: as soon as this data is on the market, it can’t be modified or reissued like a password or bank card quantity,” mentioned Mr Edwards.
Because of its extra delicate nature, genetic knowledge is taken into account particular class knowledge underneath UK knowledge safety regulation and requires additional protections and safeguards.
Companies controlling it ought to contemplate having extra safety measures in place to assist safe it, in keeping with the ICO’s steerage.
Its investigation – launched together with Canada’s privateness commissioner last June – discovered that 23andMe breached UK knowledge safety regulation by not having acceptable authentication and verification measures for purchasers throughout its login course of.
This included not having obligatory multi-factor authentication to permit customers logging in to confirm themselves via extra means or units.
The corporate additionally didn’t have safe password necessities or extra verification necessities for customers making an attempt to obtain uncooked genetic knowledge, it added.
Mr Edwards mentioned such failures and delays in resolving them “left folks’s most delicate knowledge weak to exploitation and hurt”.
“Their safety methods have been insufficient, the warning indicators have been there, and the corporate was sluggish to reply,” he mentioned.
The corporate says it resolved the problems recognized through the ICO and the Workplace of the Privateness Commissioner of Canada (OPC)’s probe by the tip of 2024.
Each watchdogs recently called on 23andMe to guard the delicate private knowledge of its clients amid its chapter proceedings.
The corporate was initially set to be bought to biotechnology firm Regeneron Prescription drugs in a $256m deal.
However 23andMe said on Friday it had agreed to the sale of its belongings to TTAM Analysis Institute – a non-profit biotech organisation led by its co-founder and former chief government Anne Wojcicki.
It mentioned the acquisition of the corporate for a brand new worth of $305m would include binding commitments to uphold current insurance policies and client protections, corresponding to letting clients delete their accounts, genetic knowledge and decide out of analysis.
A chapter courtroom is scheduled to listen to the case for its approval on Wednesday.
