23andMe says it’s been majorly compromised after hackers busted into their system a couple months ago and accessed about half of their user base’s very private data.
The DNA ancestry company — which lets people look into their past and connect with distant relatives — had their digital archives breached in October … but the full details of what exactly was gained and pored over by bad actors is now coming to light, and it’s bad.
A rep for the company confirms about 6.9 million individuals who use 23andMe — about half of their total users at 14 million — were affected in the hack … albeit, in different ways.
5.5 million people who’d opted into their DNA Relatives feature potentially had extremely sensitive info rifled through — ’cause this is the portal where people can upload their name, birth years, relationship labels to others, percentage of DNA shared with relatives, ancestry reports and even self-reported locations … depending on what they’d thrown in there.
The company says a separate 1.4 million users who had also opted into this Relatives feature from 23andMe also had their Family Tree profiles illegally accessed — which has a lot of the same user-shared details as above (sans ancestry info/DNA matching info, per 23andMe)… only here, with possibly way more people attached to any given “tree.”
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TMZ.com
23andMe is catching flak over this alarming update, ’cause in an SEC filing on Friday … they said only 0.1% of their customers’ accounts had been impacted — but these numbers suggest it was far worse than they publicly indicated.
You can view the original article HERE.
