Hackers Gather Personal Information of Jewish Descent from Stolen 23andMe User Data

Hackers targeted the genealogy testing company 23andMe and stole user data from their website BreachForums. The hackers specifically focused on two groups: people of Jewish descent and people of Chinese descent.

The stolen data mainly revolves around Ashkenazi Jews, a subset of the Jewish diaspora who migrated from Central and Eastern Europe to the Western Hemisphere.

While 23andMe confirmed the data breach, they stated that their systems were not breached. They believe that hackers gained access to user accounts through recycled login credentials. In other words, users used the same usernames and passwords for 23andMe.com and other websites that had been previously hacked.

According to Wired, at least one million users of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and hundreds of thousands of people of Chinese descent were affected by the hacking.

The hackers are currently attempting to sell the hacked data. They are offering 100 profiles for $1,000, 1,000 profiles for $5,000, 10,000 profiles for $20,000, and 100,000 profiles for $100,000. This information comes from a screenshot of BreachForums published by the technology news publication Bleeping Computer.

The hacked user data collection is titled “Ashkenazi DNA Data of Celebrities,” according to NBC News. However, despite the title, most of the people in the database are not actually celebrities.

“Crazy, this could be used by Nazis,” commented one individual to NBC News.