(Cupventi.com) – 23andMe, a company that checks your genes, shared on Monday that some people who break into computer systems took information from about 6.9 million users. This is like half of all the people who use 23andMe.
Before, the company said that these thieves got into the data of 0.1% of its users, which is around 14,000 people. They could do this because those users used the same name and secret code on 23andMe as they used on other websites that had been hacked before.
The thieves got into these accounts to get something called “Credential Stuffed Accounts.” This helped them see about 5.5 million files with DNA Relatives information. About 1.4 million people who used a special feature called DNA Relatives also had their Family Tree information seen. This is not all of their DNA info, just a bit.
A person who speaks for 23andMe told FOX Business that they don’t think their own system was broken into. They think the hackers got in because of the usernames and secret codes that were already stolen from other places. The company is making people change their secret codes and add an extra step to be sure it’s really them logging in. They promise to keep working hard to keep everything safe.
This problem started a bit ago when some information from 23andMe users started showing up on a secret part of the internet. In a blog post, 23andMe said that those sneaky people might have “gotten into 23andMe.com accounts without permission and got information from some accounts, including details about users’ DNA Relatives profiles, if the user agreed to share that information.”
They did this “when users used the same names and secret codes — that is, usernames and passwords that were used on 23andMe.com were the same as those used on other websites that were broken into before.”