Community Chat

[Mindy D]

23 and Me was breached in October by some hacker who calls himself Golem. He targeted at least one million Ashkenazi Jews and some hundreds of thousands of Chinese people. The information is already on the dark web and a major news agency was able to verify this using data from their inside sources (probably two Ashkenazi employees). Two weeks later the same hacker has revealed he has targetedBritish people and exceptionally rich  people...billionaires, including well-known ones. The hacker has also used this to scrape even more data from family members of their original targets. 

This is very upsetting news. Some sources, if you are looking, include Tech Crunch, Reuters, The Verge, Washington Post and TV network news online articles, including NBC News online.

UPDATE 4:24 PM 

As of today, they are up to publishing data of 4 million people for sale on the dark web. 

[4kitties]

I am so glad I did not go through with any of these genetic or ancestry testing sites.  I was very close to doing it at one time.😳😳😳

[Kachina624]

@Mindy D. Im assuming the seriousness of the situation depends on what information was hacked.

[lgfan]

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@4kitties wrote:

I am so glad I did not go through with any of these genetic or ancestry testing sites.  I was very close to doing it at one time.😳😳😳

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I agree with you.  The information is also used to find family members for people who have been adopted.  I saw it on the show "Long Lost Family".  

[AZfem]

I went through them for DNA testing. Hopefulky, they won't target me as I had little bits of almost every European nation. Just a mongrel. 

[Mz iMac]

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@Mindy D wrote:

billionaires, including weak-known ones.  

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[Icegoddess]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

@Mindy D. Im assuming the seriousness of the situation depends on what information was hacked.

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@Kachina624 I agree.  Is this financial data or what and for what purpose?  So many places have been hacked in the last few years.  Even my Long Term Care insurance, so I wouldn't consider 23andMe to be any different.  

However, I did at one time consider 23andMe for the possible medical implications, not for genealogical use even though I do genealogy.  I chose not to do that and have refused to do any genealogical DNA testing.  I've had people in the genealogy community poo poo my reasons, but I still stand by them. 

We guard our Social Security Numbers yet when I got my first driver's license, the DL# was my SSN and guess what went on every check I wrote.  I think my DNA should be guarded even more than my SSN.  I've always said just because you can't think of any way this information could be used in a nefarious way doesn't mean it it doesn't exist or won't exist in the future.  

[Puzzle Piece]

Can I ask - exactly what do these dark web folks hope to gain from having all this info.  I know I don't have any money so it's a waste of their time. 

[Trinity11]

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@lgfan wrote:

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@4kitties wrote:

I am so glad I did not go through with any of these genetic or ancestry testing sites.  I was very close to doing it at one time.😳😳😳

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I agree with you.  The information is also used to find family members for people who have been adopted.  I saw it on the show "Long Lost Family".  

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Yes and my experience was a nightmare. I wish I had left well enough alone.😳

[Mz iMac]

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@Puzzle Piece wrote:

Can I ask - exactly what do these dark web folks hope to gain from having all this info.  I know I don't have any money so it's a waste of their time. 

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@Puzzle Piece   Depends on the info.  All info is SOLD on the dark web.

Names, Genders, Addresses, Ages, Domociles, etc  = can be used to obtain credit cards, morgages, loans, exotic car & boat/yacht purchases, wiping out $$$ accounts, etc.