DNA testing agency 23andMe has been fined £2.31m by a UK watchdog over a knowledge breach in 2023 which affected hundreds of individuals.
The Info Commissioner’s Workplace (ICO) mentioned the corporate – which has since filed for chapter – did not put satisfactory measures in place to safe delicate consumer knowledge previous to the incident.
“This was a profoundly damaging breach that uncovered delicate private info, household histories, and even well being situations,” mentioned Info Commissioner John Edwards.
23andMe is about to be offered to a brand new proprietor, TTAM Analysis Institute, which mentioned it had “made a number of binding commitments to boost protections for buyer knowledge and privateness.”
23andMe’s customers had been focused by what is named 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 related credentials.
They had been capable of entry 14,000 particular person accounts – and, by way of these, obtain info regarding about 6.9m folks linked to as potential relations on the location.
In accordance with the ICO, this included entry to non-public knowledge belonging to 155,592 UK residents, resembling names, 12 months of beginning, geographical info, profile photographs, race, ethnicity, well being experiences and household timber.
Stolen knowledge didn’t embrace DNA information.
“As a kind of impacted instructed us: as soon as this info is on the market, it can’t be modified or reissued like a password or bank card quantity,” mentioned Mr Edwards.
On account of its extra delicate nature, genetic knowledge is taken into account particular class knowledge underneath UK knowledge safety legislation and requires additional protections and safeguards.
Companies controlling it ought to take into account having further safety measures in place to assist safe it, based on the ICO’s steering.
Its investigation – launched together with Canada’s privateness commissioner last June – discovered that 23andMe breached UK knowledge safety legislation by not having applicable authentication and verification measures for patrons throughout its login course of.
This included not having necessary multi-factor authentication to permit customers logging in to confirm themselves by way of further means or gadgets.
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 programs had been insufficient, the warning indicators had been there, and the corporate was gradual to reply,” he mentioned.
The corporate says it resolved the problems recognized throughout 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 offered to biotechnology firm Regeneron Prescribed drugs in a $256m deal.
However 23andMe said on Friday it had agreed to the sale of its property to TTAM Analysis Institute – a non-profit biotech organisation led by its co-founder and former chief govt Anne Wojcicki.
It mentioned the acquisition of the corporate for a brand new value of $305m would include binding commitments to uphold current insurance policies and client protections, resembling letting clients delete their accounts, genetic knowledge and decide out of analysis.
A chapter court docket is scheduled to listen to the case for its approval on Wednesday.
