Slashdot Mirror
Stanford Identifies Potential Security Hole In Genomic Data-Sharing Network
An anonymous reader writes: Sharing genomic information among researchers is critical to the advance of biomedical research. Yet genomic data contains identifiable information and, in the wrong hands, poses a risk to individual privacy. If someone had access to your genome sequence — either directly from your saliva or other tissues, or from a popular genomic information service — they could check to see if you appear in a database of people with certain medical conditions, such as heart disease, lung cancer or autism. Work by a pair of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine makes that genomic data more secure. Researches have demonstrated a technique for hacking a network of global genomic databases and how to prevent it. They are working with investigators from the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health on implementing preventive measures.
Hey buddy, I wouldn't mind if the trolls and shitposters would show a little creativity and originality, but it's the same copypasta over and over again, like they're high-functioning autism-spectrum disorder sufferers or something; if it's going to be noise instead of signal, can it at least be interesting noise?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Recognizing that a particular genome contains sequences related to heart disease or lung cancer in no way makes it identifiable or linked to a particular person.
It's the other way around. Here you already know the identity of the person and their genome sequence, and are trying to work out if that genome is present in a database of genomes devoted to, say, heart disease, implying that this person (or perhaps a family member) has the condition. Although the 'beacon' databases that the attack targets release only small pieces of anonymous data, the results of multiple queries can be combined to figure out if the database contains the genome of interest.
This is just another scare mongering story, probably clickbait ... nothing to see here, please move along.
Judge for yourself - here's the original paper:
http://www.cell.com/ajhg/fullt...