Security News > 2020 > July > Website Security Breach Exposes 1 Million DNA Profiles
A genealogy website used to catch one of California's most wanted serial killers remained shut down Thursday after a security breach exposed the DNA profiles of more than a million people to law enforcement agencies.
GEDmatch said in a message emailed to members and posted Wednesday on its Facebook page that on Sunday a "Sophisticated attack" on their servers through an existing user account made the DNA profiles of its members available for police to search for about three hours.
GEDmatch briefly resumed but shut down again after it was the target of a second breach on Monday when all user permissions were set to opt-in to law enforcement matching, the company said.
"We can assure you that your DNA information was not compromised, as GEDmatch does not store raw DNA files on the site," the company said.
As of 2019, than 1.2 million people have used GEDmatch's free service to upload data profiles from different DNA testing companies such as Ancestry and 23andme, and compare their autosomal DNA data files with others, KPIX-TV reported.