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Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

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Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#81

Post by anitil »

leafboi wrote: post #71
loughnane wrote: post #3

This is why I’ve been putting off getting my genome sequenced. One breach and it’s out there forever. I’ve heard good things about nebula[0] as a way to get an anonymous genome but have yet to be motivated enough to take the plunge [0] https://nebula.org/whole-genome-sequencing/

From an ethics standpoint their's something to talk about here... From an individual standpoint I really don't care about someone out in the public knowing my genome. It's not like I store my passwords on my genome, how is this information going to be used against me?

One example might be the BRCA gene mutation. It gives you a higher chance of breast cancer and is typically associated with Ashkenazi Jews.

I'm sure your insurer would be interested to know if you have it, and that potentially your children are at an elevated risk.

Unfortunately there might be people interested in the ethnic association as well.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#82

Post by soulofmischief »

MattGaiser wrote: post #31
slg wrote: post #27

Can someone explain the potential short to medium term fears of one's DNA leaking? My initial assumption is that it would be less of a problem compared to nearly any other personal data leaking. Like it certainly sounds creepy, but credit card or other financial data being stolen presents a huge headache and creates a lot of work. I understand that in specific instances, for example when paternity is in question or i…

I may be one of the people who lost DNA in this breach. I am not currently worried about anything, but I also know that I don’t know everything DNA can be used for. My greatest concern consists of things some smart crook might think of doing. While a reputable company might not use the DNA for fear of getting sued, they might use a crappy contractor who does not care. Banks care about information security and take it…

Think bigger. Insurance. Loans. Financial predation. The right to bear arms. Social stigma created by incumbent politicians wishing to divide their people over meaningless differences.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#83

Post by leafboi »

dfee wrote: post #63
all_blue_chucks wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the impact of having your DNA known? As far as I can tell the worst case scenarios are finding out you have to pay child support or getting placed at the scene of a crime. If those risks don't apply to you, who cares?

If you’ve got nothing to hide... then make it all public. Let’s start with your finances.

Finances are different right? People tend to hide their finances because of taxes and other illegal shit, and also to prevent jealousy.

As for genetics, most of your genetics are on display every time you walk out the door. People look at you and they can have a good guess about a huge portion of your genes. For example if you have a beard and a penis you probably have a Y chromosome, though this is more challenging to figure out nowadays.

Thus mostly their's really nothing left to hide in terms of genetics. In terms of finances... while I specifically have nothing to hide, more people have things to hide in this area.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#84

Post by neltnerb »

Shared404 wrote: post #60
aahhahahaaa wrote: post #25

So they sent an email to their users that states: >We can assure you that your DNA information was not compromised, as GEDmatch does not store raw DNA files on the site. When you upload your data, the information is encoded, and the raw file deleted. This is one of the ways we protect our users’ most sensitive information. This is kind of BS right? It's encoded... not encrypted.

Presumably. However, if it was a PR drone who wrote that, it may or may not be accurate as to whether or not it was encoded/encrypted. I would just assume that it has in fact been compromised though.

Or at least a summary version of it with all the data they felt was relevant to keep... so everything we currently know to be important.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#85

Post by pavel_lishin »

all_blue_chucks wrote: post #61
loughnane wrote: post #3

This is why I’ve been putting off getting my genome sequenced. One breach and it’s out there forever. I’ve heard good things about nebula[0] as a way to get an anonymous genome but have yet to be motivated enough to take the plunge [0] https://nebula.org/whole-genome-sequencing/

What is the impact of having your DNA known? As far as I can tell the worst case scenarios are finding out you have to pay child support or getting placed at the scene of a crime. If those risks don't apply to you, who cares?

> If those risks don't apply to you, who cares?

Others have mentioned that that's a bad argument, so I won't rehash that.

> getting placed at the scene of a crime

That's a pretty damn bad "worst case scenario", but here's a few I'm going to toss out without too much thought:

1. Health insurance companies can deny you coverage. In America, that can be a literal death sentence. (Yes, GINA 2008 was passed, no, I don't want to bet my future health care coverage on it not being repealed, mangled, or bypassed in some other way.)

2. International risks. A lot of discussion here is largely focused on American law. But many of us aren't American, or aren't just American. Look at my username; I have ties to another country, and I frankly have no idea what sort of risk I might get exposed to there. Getting placed at the scene of a crime in some jurisdictions is much more serious than you make it out to be; being identified as being a relative of someone else could also have dire consequences.

3. You know those scams where Grandpa Joe gets a frantic call from his distraught granddaughter Jane, and she's in Mexico being held up on a bogus charge, but if he wires their police department $500 ($5000?) the whole thing goes away? This becomes much easier if you can look up family histories.

4. You cannot predict the future. You have no idea what's coming down the pipeline.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#86

Post by chrisweekly »

bredren wrote: post #50
anderspitman wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nebula is definitely an interesting entry into the market. There's also Dante Labs[0], which often offers 30x whole genome in the 200-300USD range. You can download all your raw data (including FASTQs, h37-aligned BAMs, and VCFs) from AWS. There are some quality concerns (and they use BGI instead of Illumina sequencers), but at that price it's tempting to do Dante and Nebula as a check on each other. Dante also has w…

Is it strange to suggest discussing anything on Facebook, given how little privacy is afforded to users? I find it just a bit weird that products that customers recognize require privacy as a core tenant would also just head on over to Facebook to add new, targeted meta to their verified Facebook profile.

agreed w your observation; yes it's strange / weird, almost unfathomable.

also, in a genuinely non-pedantic, "aiming to help and educate, not nitpick" way, may I offer this tidbit:

tenant: legal inhabitant / renter / occupant

tenet: principle or belief

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#87

Post by all_blue_chucks »

dfee wrote: post #63
all_blue_chucks wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the impact of having your DNA known? As far as I can tell the worst case scenarios are finding out you have to pay child support or getting placed at the scene of a crime. If those risks don't apply to you, who cares?

If you’ve got nothing to hide... then make it all public. Let’s start with your finances.

I openly talk about my finances with anyone who wants to talk personal finance. What threat are you imagining this could pose?

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#88

Post by [deleted] »

leafboi wrote: post #83
dfee wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’ve got nothing to hide... then make it all public. Let’s start with your finances.

Finances are different right? People tend to hide their finances because of taxes and other illegal shit, and also to prevent jealousy. As for genetics, most of your genetics are on display every time you walk out the door. People look at you and they can have a good guess about a huge portion of your genes. For example if you have a beard and a penis you probably have a Y chromosome, though this is more challenging…

[deleted]

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#89

Post by apocalypstyx »

Zircom wrote: post #54
IncRnd wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often, security bulletins will use the word sophisticated when describing multi-step attacks.

Step 1: Type in stolen username Step 2: Type in stolen password Step 3: Click log in button Step 4: ( •_• ) ( •_• )>⌐■-■ ( ⌐■_■) Step 5: I'm in One example of a "sophisticated" attack

Now you're making me wonder how many places the sunglasses meme in unicode could be used as a valid password.

Re: Breach exposed more than one million DNA profiles on a major genealogy database

#90

Post by pavel_lishin »

stickfigure wrote: post #62
slg wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This requires the insurance company to be doing something illegal and for it to really cause damage all their competitors have to be doing it as well. If this ever becomes widespread, it would be quickly obvious when a large number of ostensibly healthy people are given quotes that match their genetic profile but not their medical history. I'm just not sure that is a reasonable fear.

I am also extremely dubious of this risk. At least in the US, a conspiracy of this sort would require hundreds of potentially-disgruntled employees to resist getting rich from whistleblower rewards.

Or half a dozen engineers building a new "AI-driven" risk evaluation service with nebulous inputs from their manager.
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