- Medical data from 500,000 UK biobank volunteers was wrongly listed for sale on Alibaba by rogue researchers.
- The archive contained anonymized health information used in thousands of scientific studies, but no personal identifiers such as names or addresses.
- Access for the institutions involved has been revoked and officials confirmed the listing was removed before any purchase took place.
Medical information on half a million British citizens ended up for sale on none other than Alibaba after “rogue researchers” put it there.
Between 2006 and 2010, an independent, non-profit research organization called the UK Biobank collected health data from 500,000 volunteers in the UK. Supported by bodies such as the UK Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the National Health Service, and with the aim of enabling health research at scale, the project collected anonymous information such as gender, age, month and year of birth, socio-economic status, lifestyle habits and measures from various biological samples.
According to the BBC, the UK biobank project resulted in more than 18,000 scientific publications and has been used to improve detection and treatment of dementia, certain cancers and Parkinson’s. The volunteers were aged 40 – 69 years at the time the data was collected.
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Legit downloads
Earlier today, news broke that someone tried to sell the entire database on Alibaba, one of the largest online e-marketplaces in China and the world. This was confirmed by the UK’s technology minister, Ian Murray, who confirmed that personally identifiable information such as names, addresses, emails or phone numbers was not leaked. “This was a legitimate download by a legally accredited organization,” he said. “That is the problem that has been identified.”
Chief Executive Professor Sir Rory Collins also commented, saying the data was available to researchers at three institutions and that Alibaba removed it in the meantime. The institutions, which were not named, have had their access revoked, Sir Rory confirmed.
Murray said no one bought the archive before it was pulled offline. Speaking to the BBC, UK Biobank chief scientist Prof Naomi Allen said that “at the end of the day it’s the fault of these rogue researchers”.
Usually, when cybercriminals get hold of such databases, they offer to sell them on the dark web, not a legitimate site like Alibaba, which makes this incident even more curious.
Via BBC
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