The UK Biobank, a major health-tracking study, temporarily suspended researcher access after sensitive participant data appeared for sale online. The leak, originating from institutions in China, prompted an internal investigation and led to stricter security protocols. The biobank is now reopening access this month.
On a Tuesday in mid-April, the UK Biobank received an email from an anonymous researcher alerting them to sensitive information from hundreds of thousands of its participants being offered for sale on Xianyu, an e-commerce website owned by Alibaba. The UK Biobank, with assistance from Alibaba, the United Kingdom, and China, successfully removed the listing. This incident triggered an internal investigation and a temporary suspension of researcher access while the biobank upgraded its data security infrastructure.
The UK Biobank contains genetic information, medical imaging files, health history, and lifestyle data from 500,000 participants in a decades-long study. Daniel MacArthur, a geneticist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, emphasized the biobank’s value, stating, “We’ve learned more about human biology from the work from UK Biobank than I think we have from any other single resource.” He added that the biobank’s accessibility has been key to its success, but also potentially contributed to the security breach.
The UK Biobank’s investigation, published on June 4th, revealed three instances of participant data being offered for sale online, all linked to institutions in China. These institutions have been banned from future access, and Alibaba has implemented automated searches to remove related listings. Both the UK Biobank and 23andMe have updated their security protocols to enhance access controls.
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