The Era of DNA Database Hacks Is Here

A major data breach shows genetic information is vulnerable to attack

Emily Mullin
OneZero
Published in
6 min readJul 30, 2020

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A close up of a gloved hand holding up a DNA autoradiogram next to a petri dish to illustrate genetic research.
Photo: Tek Image/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

On the morning of July 19, hackers accessed the online DNA database GEDmatch and temporarily allowed police to search the profiles of more than 1 million users that were previously not accessible to law enforcement. GEDmatch is a genealogy tool that allows users to upload their DNA…

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Emily Mullin
OneZero

Former staff writer at Medium, where I covered biotech, genetics, and Covid-19 for OneZero, Future Human, Elemental, and the Coronavirus Blog.