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An nameless hacker is claiming to be promoting “thousands and thousands” of genetic profiles cobbled collectively from hijacked 23andMe buyer accounts.
The vendor prompt the profiles, which embody electronic mail addresses, images, gender, date of start and DNA ancestry, may very well be used to focus on customers primarily based on their ethnicity.
23andMe, a genetics test kit company that provides ancestry and well being stories by analyzing an individual’s saliva, confirmed Friday that real buyer information was on the market on a hacker discussion board. Nonetheless, a spokesperson advised Bloomberg Information the corporate discovered no indication of a breach in its data methods. As an alternative, it appeared the attacker had logged into particular person clients’ accounts on 23andMe by re-using credentials present in databases for hacked accounts of different companies on the web.
The hacker additionally appeared to create profiles of extra folks by copying the names of the 23andMe clients’ family who had been related utilizing the corporate’s “DNA Family” device. 23andMe’s DNA Family characteristic let customers join with potential family who share comparable DNA and trade their genetic profiles.
“We’re taking this situation severely and can proceed our investigation to substantiate these preliminary outcomes,” 23andMe mentioned in a press release.
On Oct. 2, an nameless vendor posted that that they had a “a million Ashkenazi database” on a discussion board for promoting hacked information, referring to folks of central and japanese European Jewish heritage.
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