The unyielding malice of people sometimes just leave me tired and defeated.
Attackers could reveal most of the genetic information for millions of people whose DNA is held on genetic genealogy databases by exploiting how the websites work. …
One attack involved uploading many real genetic data sets and monitoring for partial matches with short stretches of people’s genomes in the database.
A twist on that approach was uploading genetic data that is largely fake, apart from a genuine segment targeting a match for specific genetic variants linked to greater risk of certain conditions, such as Alzheimer’s.
A third way involved trying to trick algorithms by using completely faked data designed to match most people in the databases.
Tests returned more genetic data as the minimum matching segment length reduced. Using the first technique with the shortest segment length returned significant genetic data: about 60 per cent of an average person’s total alleles – their variants of a gene – could be recovered. “So we are in fact talking about most of the genetic information of most of the people in our database,” says Edge. [NewScientist, 2 November 2019]
It may just have been a result of how the article was written, or maybe I’m in a chronic bad mood, but that people will use sophisticated attack techniques simply to discover your genetic encoding just, augh. I hates it, I do, I hates it a lot, how about you?
Sorry.
Anyone got cheery thoughts?
