Comment on 23andMe Blames Users for Recent Data Breach as It's Hit With Dozens of Lawsuits

SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The real issue was the DNA Relatives feature, which allowed information to be shared with other users in the platform. From this TechCrunch article

  by hacking into only 14,000 customers’ accounts, the hackers subsequently scraped personal data of another 6.9 million customers whose accounts were not directly hacked

  There are 6.9 million people who could have been using 2FA and unique passwords, and their personal information was scrapped just because of 14k accounts which were reusing passwords.

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  • eager_eagle@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This data of 6.9M users was not private anyways, it’s really not a leak.

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    • bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Agreed, although name and nationality isn’t really private information to begin with. Just based on the numbers, it seems like it was sharing the information too broadly, probably to 4th cousins twice removed. When users opted in to this feature, the intent was for distant relatives to be able to connect, not to show up on a list of Eastern European Jews to be shared on 4chan.

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  • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If I give my credit card to my sister, and she drops it, that’s not MasterCard’s fault. If they were very concerned, they should’ve made sure their relatives were trustworthy.

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    • SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      A better example might be the keys to your house and a note out on the counter with a label that says “surewhynotlem’s house key.”

      An intruder finds the key, and now has information on where the key can be used. When your house is robbed, it’s the locksmith who is to blame.

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      • key@lemmy.keychat.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I’d say it’s more like you gave your mom your SSN (or similar private information) because she said she needed it for her will or something. When you gave it to her she mumbled she’d share it with your sister too. You weren’t really paying attention and just went “yuh huh” when you probably should have told her not to. Your sister uses one key for everything and a burglar got a copy of that key from an earlier burglarly. The burglar eventually used the key to rob her and took your SSN, which he’s now selling to identity thieves.

        Mom=23andme

        Sister=relative

        “yuh huh”=not reading the fine print and disabling “DNA Relatives” sharing feature

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  • SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    DNA Relatives was an opt-in program, so you had to choose to share your data. To their knowledge, they were data-sharing with their relatives.

    Once again, what is a system supposed to do when given the correct login credentials?

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• SeaJ@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  There are some pretty basic things you can do to stop brute force attacks like putting a limit on failed login attempts which 23andme did not have. The issue is that those accounts almost certainly had multiple failed login attempts from places that should have flagged the login.

  You ask what a security system is supposed to do when provided with the correct login. That is just the beginning of basic security. If someone consistently logs in from an IP address in one region and then all of a sudden has a couple failed logins from Russia and also one successful one from there, would you say a good security system shouldn’t flag that? If a bank allowed your debit card to be used in a country you have never been to before when you seem to have just used it where you normally do, would you be fine with them not freezing your card?

  As for MFA, last I checked, they still did not require it. It was recommended but not required.

  And let’s not forget that they changed the terms of service so you could not sue over shit like this in the future. You had 60 days to reject the new terms of service which you did by sending an email. The email address in the emailed instructions was different than the one in the legal document that was attached.

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  • usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    My understanding is that the failed logins where properly locked out like you describe. Passwords were leaked from other sites, so it was people reusing passwords that allowed the beach into 23 and me. Sounds like the users’ fault to me.

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  • biscuitswalrus@aussie.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The guy said brute force but meant credential stuffing.

    Basically using an army of remote compromised devices to use known user name password combinations. If they used the same email and password that was found on another compromise, then their account would successfully be logged in first try.

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• pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m downvoting you even though I believe the users are negligent and partially to blame here. However, does the site not lock log in attempts after the first 10 login attempts or something? At this point, something so sensitive like ancestry and health information should be mfa required at the bare minimum a phone number 2fa would help a bit.

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  • SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    However, does the site not lock log in attempts after the first 10 login attempts or something?

    They had accurate credentials. They didn’t hit a login wall because people were re-using their passwords. They hit a login-wall for people who didn’t re-use their passwords. They got accurate credentials from an unrelated hack, from people re-using passwords. How many times does a system “block” you when you have the right username and password?? Zero, I’m pretty fucksure.

    I am very confused at what people think computers are supposed to do when given the correct login information? The point of login information is to prove who you are. If you have the correct information, the computer cannot know who is behind the keyboard.

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    • automattable@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I get asked to prove I’m making a legit login attempt all the time because it’s from a new IP address. 23andMe could have implemented something similar, and given the sensitive nature of the data they host and given how we all know that people can’t be trusted to have good password hygiene, I think they should have been required to do so.

      IMO this whole thing is just more proof that we need better regulation around how companies treat users’ private information.

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      • SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I think they should have been required to do so.

        Did you miss the part where our government can’t even pass a budget, but you’re expecting them to pass laws like this?

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  • scytale@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Not sure of this specific case, but typical brute force attacks are done locally on the database that was acquired from the breach, not on the site itself. This way lockouts aren’t an issue.

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    • bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      In this case it was a credential stuffing attack against the live login form on the website based on the information released.

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• trackcharlie@lemmynsfw.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Right, and what about the people who didn’t reuse passwords whose information was stolen?

  Just fuck them?

  How about just fuck you?

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• aelwero@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  What is a security system supposed to do when provided with the correct login credentials?

  I’m gonna go with not give that user access to millions of other users’ personal information…

  I get your point and agree, but having a valid login shouldn’t provide that kind of access.

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  • Girru00@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What? Unless I missed something, it gave access to individual accounts not master access?

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• baggins@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  You can also monitor your system for known compromised credentials and expire them. Not foolproof but it catches the low hanging fruit.

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• OutrageousUmpire@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I mostly agree. One thing they could have done to mitigate some of it is bar the user from creating a password that is one of the most commonly used 1 million passwords, or 10,000, etc to mitigate users using commonly used passwords that they might have used elsewhere.

  Most commonly used password lists: github.com/danielmiessler/…/Common-Credentials

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