The ICO said over 150,000 U.K. residents had data stolen in the breach.
The U.K. data protection watchdog has fined 23andMe £2.31 million ($3.1 million) for failing to protect U.K. residents’ personal and genetic data prior to its 2023 data breach.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said on Tuesday it has fined the genetic testing company as it “did not have additional verification steps for users to access and download their raw genetic data” at the time of its cyberattack.
In 2023, hackers stole private data on more than 6.9 million users over a months-long campaign by accessing thousands of accounts using stolen credentials. 23andMe did not require its users to use multi-factor authentication, which the ICO said broke U.K. data protection law.
The ICO said over 155,000 U.K. residents had their data stolen in the breach.
In response to the fine, 23andMe told TechCrunch that it had rolled out mandatory multi-factor authentication for all accounts.
The ICO said it is in contact with 23andMe’s trustee following the company’s filing for bankruptcy protection. A hearing on 23andMe’s sale is expected later on Wednesday.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a reprimand to the Department for Education (DfE) following the prolonged misuse of the personal information of up to 28 million children.
An ICO investigation found that the DfE’s poor due diligence meant a database of pupils’ learning records was ultimately used by Trust Systems Software UK Ltd (trading as Trustopia), an employment screening firm, to check whether people opening online gambling accounts were 18.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Clearview AI Inc £7,552,800 for using images of people in the UK, and elsewhere, that were collected from the web and social media to create a global online database that could be used for facial recognition.
The ICO has also issued an enforcement notice, ordering the company to stop obtaining and using the personal data of UK residents that is publicly available on the internet, and to delete the data of UK residents from its systems.
