23andMe hacker leaks 4 million stolen DNA profiles from customers with British ancestry in fury at UK’s support for Israel – and claims the data includes ‘Royal Family’ members

A hacker has released millions of additional genetic profiles stolen from DNA testing company 23andMe, claiming the leaked dataset includes members of the royal family and other notables with British ancestry.

The hacker using the nickname “Golem” published the genetic profiles on the cybercrime marketplace BreachForums on Tuesday, citing anger at Israel and its supporters as the motive for the leak.

The dataset includes four million 23andMe customers with ancestors from Britain, Golem claimed, saying the genetic profiles include “wealthy families serving Zionism” and “the richest people living in the US and Western Europe.”

“There are samples from hundreds of families, including the Royal Family, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and more,” the hacker added, referring to wealthy European and American families respectively.

It follows previous leaks targeting 23andMe customers of Jewish and Chinese descent, and the company told DailyMail.com that it was aware of the hacker’s latest message and is reviewing the data to determine if it is legitimate. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A hacker has released millions of additional genetic profiles stolen from DNA testing company 23andMe, claiming the leaked dataset includes members of the British royal family

At least some of the newly leaked stolen data matches known and public user and genetic information from 23andMe TechCrunchwhich supports the authenticity of the leak.

Golem on Wednesday posted another nearly 140,000 stolen genetic profiles of 23andMe users with German ancestry, again citing hostility toward Israel amid that country’s recent war with Hamas.

The hacker accused German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of “serving Zionism” and said the release consisted of a third of the total number of profiles with German origins in the stolen database, and threatened to release more if Germany upped its support Israel would save.

Cybersecurity experts had more questions than answers about the apparent breach.

‘Little is known about this hack. Who was responsible? Was their motivation financial or political? Was 23andMe specifically targeted? How did the hacker get the data?’ Brett Callow, a threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, told DailyMail.com.

‘We don’t have a conclusive answer to any question yet. However, one thing is clear: giving your DNA to a third party is not without risks,” he added.

The latest series of leaks follows the hacker’s offers to sell stolen DNA profiles, as well as an earlier leak of millions of profiles of people with Jewish and Chinese ancestry.

“These breaches are becoming more brazen and worrying,” Dimitri Sirota, the CEO of data security company BigID, told DailyMail.com.

‘They focus on contextual identifiers such as ethnic group membership. This could be used for targeted campaigns based on ethnicity, race, gender, political affiliation or membership of another group,” he added, saying it raised concerns about cyber breaches turning into “hate crimes.”

The royal family is seen in an archive photo. A hacker claims to have published DNA of four million people with British ancestry, including members of the royal family

23andMe is a leader in the $3 billion genetic testing market. For prices up to $200, customers can take a test that reveals their ethnic background

23andMe has said it did not detect any system-wide breaches and claimed data may have been stolen from individual users who reused passwords breached on other sites.

If that’s the case, the hackers may have compromised only a limited number of accounts but scraped millions of profiles using the “DNA Relatives” feature that 23andMe users can sign up for to find information about family members.

Golem, the hacker who posted the stolen data, appears to have initially put the profiles up for sale, writing on Wednesday: “I want to remind you that even the data I share here is extremely valuable.”

But the hacker in the recent leaks sounded more politically motivated. He lashed out at Israel, citing a recent explosion at a hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of people as a motive for releasing the new genetic profiles.

Palestinians blame Israel for the blast, while Israel says the hospital was hit by a failed rocket launched by militants in Gaza.

“I’m not a Muslim, but I’m struggling to stop myself from uploading hundreds (terabytes) of data to torrents because of the despicable Israel attacking the hospital,” Golem wrote.

23andMe said in a statement Wednesday: “We recently learned that certain profile information – which a customer creates and chooses to share with their genetic relatives in the DNA Relatives feature – was accessed from individual 23andMe.com accounts without their consent.

“We immediately launched an investigation and at this time have no indication that a data security incident occurred within our systems, or that 23andMe was the source of the account information used in these attacks.

Golem, the hacker who posted the stolen data, appears to have initially put the profiles up for sale

“Our research indicates that the threat actor was able to gain access to certain customer accounts in cases where users reused login credentials – that is, usernames and passwords used on 23andMe.com were the same as those used on other websites that had previously been compromised.

‘We have since notified customers and taken additional security measures, including requiring all accounts to undergo a password reset and advising customers to enable multi-factor authentication. We are working with outside forensic experts as part of our ongoing investigation, as well as with federal law enforcement agencies.

“Today we were made aware that the threat actor involved in this investigation has reportedly posted additional customer DNA-related profile information. We are currently reviewing the data to determine if it is legitimate.

“Our investigation is ongoing and if we learn that a customer’s data has been accessed without authorization, we will immediately notify them with more information.”

23andMe is a leader in the $3 billion genetic testing market. For prices up to $200, customers can take a test that reveals their background and can also identify gene variants linked to diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.