Tuesday, 5 December 2023

6.9 million users affected by recent 23andMe data breach

DNA company 23andMe (www.23andme.com) has confirmed the extent of its recent data breach in October, which led to rivals Ancestry, MyHeritage and 23andMe implementing two factor authentication on log-ins. 

Hackers were able to initially hack into 14,000 23andMe user profiles. This then allowed them to gain access to the personal data of about 5.5 million people who had opted-in to the company's DNA Relatives feature, with stolen data including a person’s name, birth year, relationship labels, the percentage of DNA shared with relatives, ancestry reports and self-reported location. In addition to this hackers also gained access to the family tree profile information of about 1.4 million additional customers. In total, about half of the company's 14 million subscribers have been affected.

For more on the story visit https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/04/23andme-confirms-hackers-stole-ancestry-data-on-6-9-million-users/

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

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