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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

#141

Post by slg »

site-packages1 wrote: post #116
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 think insurance companies aren't above doing anything illegal, especially if it can not insure you/drive you away with a high quote if it saves them many years and millions and millions of dollars covering someone's care for Huntington's or chemo for breast cancer or some other terrible disease for which someone is genetically predisposed. The punishment for violations of the Genetic Information NonDiscrimination A…

There are a couple problems with this line of thinking. First, a lack of known cases doesn't mean that this is necessarily hard to detect or that it isn't being prosecuted. It might also simply not be happening. That seems to be the most likely scenario given how hard it currently would be to secretly acquire and use this genetic data.

Also you don't need to have a massive amount of HIPAA protected data to be publicly available for someone to notice. There are plenty of independent insurance brokers who serve as middlemen between consumers and the insurance companies. These people have access to all the medicals and usually end up having a decent understanding of how that translates into insurance rates. A drastic change in how insurance companies rate risk would be quickly noticed by these brokers. Right now if a broker receives a particularly bad rate from a specific insurer due to a quirk of their actuarial numbers, they will often turn around and apply to a competitor. That means any single insurer using this information wouldn't necessarily do that much damage to end consumers. It also means that any single insurer who did this would quickly get a reputation for providing rates that look unexplainable on the surface and it won't be long before people start asking why. Once again, I just don't think this is a realistic scenario.

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

#142

Post by jeffbee »

throwawayDNA wrote: post #77
jeffbee wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How, exactly? It's not like I can use wide-area instrumentation to locate you via your genome. You can imagine how to do it with cameras and faces, but I just don't see the method for DNA.

Imagine the BLM protests (since that will probably be popular with the HN crowd). There’s video footage of a guy in a mask spitting on the ground after throwing a rock. He’s wearing a mask. His second cousin did 23 and me. Actually, statistically many of his second cousins did 23 and me. Therefore we know who he is. If only one second cousin did 23 and me, we’ve narrowed the suspects to, perhaps, a few hundred. Filte…

Didn't understand your point. Identifying specific individuals is not the same thing as mass surveillance.

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

#143

Post by Balgair »

thephyber wrote: post #22

As someone who works in cybersecurity, it's always hard for me to interpret PR language like "orchestrated through a sophisticated attack". This could be aimed towards non-savvy readers meaning basically anything or it could be accurate and describe a nation-state (although I don't get the feeling of a sophisticated nation-state actor here). The DoJ used similar wording when prosecuting Aaron Schwartz for using Pytho…

To be fair, curl is a nightmare of pedantry without something like postman to deal with it all for you. BTW, when did postman come out anyway?

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

#144

Post by Godel_unicode »

holografix wrote: post #117
hangonhn wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, is there a reason for Mormons to especially care about their genealogy?

Probably a practical and financial reason such as the Catholic Church not allowing priests to marry and have children as a form of preventing priests passing on accumulated wealth or power to their offspring.

That's a pretty strange claim, do you have any evidence for it? Priests are not exactly wealthy, in general.

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

#145

Post by gliese1337 »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #127
Trasmatta wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what they're trying to do. In Mormon theology everyone who dies without a chance to be baptized must be given a proxy baptism by someone living, so they have a chance to accept the gospel in the afterlife. The goal is that this will eventually happen for everyone who ever lived. (Source: former Mormon.)

Send someone up to space each year and sprinkle water on earth, do a bulk lot.

Even discounting the procedural difficulties, which would make such a baptism invalid to the church, it doesn't count without knowledge and consent.

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

#146

Post by Godel_unicode »

Balgair wrote: post #143
thephyber wrote: post #22

As someone who works in cybersecurity, it's always hard for me to interpret PR language like "orchestrated through a sophisticated attack". This could be aimed towards non-savvy readers meaning basically anything or it could be accurate and describe a nation-state (although I don't get the feeling of a sophisticated nation-state actor here). The DoJ used similar wording when prosecuting Aaron Schwartz for using Pytho…

To be fair, curl is a nightmare of pedantry without something like postman to deal with it all for you. BTW, when did postman come out anyway?

If by which you mean it adheres to the specs and does what you tell it to, then sure?

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

#147

Post by gliese1337 »

perl4ever wrote: post #123
bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! Get a load of this guy, caring about people outside his family /s

That's the whole point; they intend to baptize everyone living or dead, and theoretically even the dead get to decide whether to accept. Genealogy is a side effect of this, I have the vague impression that they need to know who you are to baptize you; however, everyone on the planet is a member of the same "family".

That is a correct impression. A name, date, and associated place, with all three assumed to uniquely identify an individual in most cases, are required to perform the ordinance. Most typically, that's a birth name and a date and place of birth, date and place of death, or date and place of marriage.

If it turns out that there were two people with the same name born in the same town on the same day... well, the angels will help figure that out later.

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

#148

Post by thephyber »

ddod wrote: post #103
thephyber wrote: post #22

As someone who works in cybersecurity, it's always hard for me to interpret PR language like "orchestrated through a sophisticated attack". This could be aimed towards non-savvy readers meaning basically anything or it could be accurate and describe a nation-state (although I don't get the feeling of a sophisticated nation-state actor here). The DoJ used similar wording when prosecuting Aaron Schwartz for using Pytho…

Speaking of misleading cybersecurity language, note how you used the term "nation-state", which is a word that indicates a specific subset of countries and is not just a fancy synonym for "country".

That's an existing problem that hasn't been solved in geopolitical meatspace. I don't expect it to be solved in cybersecurity first.

That said, for my understanding: which political bodies are countries but not nation-states? Is this a reference to places like Singapore and the Vatican, which are probably more accurately labeled city-states?

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

#149

Post by [deleted] »

markdown wrote: post #12
site-packages1 wrote: post #2

For those who are annoyed about the name of the site not being in the title: GEDMatch was phised a few days ago, then yesterday phishing led to the data exfiltration from the Israeli DNA site MyHeritage. https://www.myheritage.com/

I thought myheritage was owned by the Mormons.

[deleted]

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

#150

Post by all_blue_chucks »

austhrow743 wrote: post #139
all_blue_chucks wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting point, but if your government becomes blatantly oppressive they don't need DNA to do it.

No but the DNA database helps them track you down.

Sure. They might outlaw brown hair, too. They might outlaw last names with vowels. That hypothetical, imaginary risk doesn't make it sensible to dye your hair and change your name.
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