23andme’s New Owner Says Your Dna Is Safe This Time
The medical research nonprofit vying to buy 23andMe is informing existing customers that it plans to complete the deal on July 8.
Founded by 23andMe’s former CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki, TTAM Research Institute is behind the purchase of the beleaguered genetics biz, which was confirmed last week.
It reportedly submitted a $305 million bid for the company, whose 2023 mega data breach and resulting fallout led to it filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year.
Following a year-long probe, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has since fined 23andMe £2.31 million ($3.13 million) over unsatisfactory authentication policies, insufficient access controls, and weak threat detection.
The letter sent to existing 23andMe customers, seen by The Register, introduced TTAM and its intentions with the purchase, and promised to protect their data going forward.
Millions of genetic profiles
When we talk about the 23andMe breach, we mean the one back in late 2023 that saw around 14,000 accounts compromised by “Golem” using credential-stuffing techniques.
However, due to the DNA-sharing feature of the platform, those accounts – which made up only around 0.1 percent of the total user base – allowed Golem to access and siphon off the data belonging to around 7 million people.
The ICO said that affected Brits could have had any number of the following data types compromised: names, birth years, self-reported city or postcode-level locations, profile images, race, ethnicity, family trees, and health reports.
Naturally, the class action lawyers latched onto the news, and 23andMe eventually settled one of the lawsuits for $30 million last year.
23andMe’s response to the breach did not go down well. Onlookers felt the company blamed its users following a statement it made claiming customers were negligent in failing to update their credentials that were compromised in prior, unconnected breaches.
While poor cyber hygiene certainly played a part in the attack, the company’s approach was received poorly, given it failed to detect the intrusion for five months.
It reads: “TTAM’s charitable mission is to continue the innovative research and scientific discoveries that were core to 23andMe, while expanding its active conduct of medical research and educational activities to empower individuals to learn about their own genomes and advance our knowledge of human health.
“Customer privacy is at the core of TTAM’s mission of helping individuals gain insight into, and benefit from, their genetic information. TTAM is committed to adhering to 23andMe’s existing privacy policies of always honoring customers with choice and transparency.”
Not that this wouldn’t be the case if things were different, but it should be said that TTAM’s commitment here is less a matter of moral integrity and more a legal requirement under the terms of the sale.
“We have seen how important genetic information is to all of our lives and we are committed to continuing to serve our customers, deliver meaningful genetic insights to them and the broader community, and expand medical research that unlocks the power of human genetics,” the letter continued.
TTAM went on to say that it will continue to offer the same types of products as 23andMe, all while furthering innovative research to make impactful scientific discoveries.
Customers were told that no action is required on their part, and that their data has not been moved out of 23andMe’s control.
They were also assured that “TTAM will be operating with the same employees and privacy protocols that have protected your data and is committed to continuous improvement of those policies.”
Finally, customers were told that they can still choose to wipe their data from the company’s servers permanently via their account page, if they haven’t already done so. ®
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