23andMe suffers information hack
Like everybody else who’s DNA-tested at 23andMe, The Authorized Genealogist was dismayed this previous week to be taught of an obvious information hack on the DNA testing web site.
If the reviews are correct, it’s not precisely a safety gap that 23andMe might have plugged. The story is that hackers collected passwords related to particular e mail addresses that had already been hacked at different websites after which reused them at 23andMe to see in the event that they labored.
And since 23andMe makes use of e mail addresses as usernames and so many people do have interaction on this dangerous enterprise of reusing passwords, the hackers received entry to a ton of knowledge.
To date, private details about roughly 1,000,000 customers of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and 300,000 customers of Chinese language descent was provided on the market on the so-called Darkish Net. The information provided included full names, start years, location data and extra. No person is aware of what number of accounts had been accessed, how a lot information was scraped and what it is perhaps used for.
As but, there’s no indication that uncooked DNA information was hacked, however the incident remains to be underneath investigation.
However right here’s the underside line: no firm can shield us from our personal folly. Utilizing a password throughout a number of web sites nowadays of knowledge hacking is simply that: folly. (And yeah, I’ve accomplished it too. My pointing finger right here is pointing proper again at me too.)
Significantly at a web site like a DNA testing firm, don’t use a password you’ve ever used wherever else.
And if in case you have — change your password now.
At 23andMe, the steps are to log in, go to the highest proper of the person web page the place your title or initials might be discovered, click on on that and select Settings. From Settings, select to Edit your Account Settings. When the edit web page opens, select Change Password. You’ll must enter your present password to alter it to a brand new one.
Don’t wait. Do it at present. And do a safety test on each web site the place you could have delicate private data: DNA testing websites and monetary websites of any form proper on the high of the listing.
By no means ever reuse a password throughout a number of websites, and significantly not at a web site the place accessing your information might be harmful to your well being — monetary or in any other case.
Change your password.
Now.
Cite/hyperlink to this submit: Judy G. Russell, “Change your password!,” The Authorized Genealogist ( : posted 8 Oct 2023).
#Change #password