this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023

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341

Genetics firm 23andMe says user data stolen in credential stuffing attack (www.bleepingcomputer.com)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Never re-use a password between services; every password for every system should be unique. Use a “password manager” to help.

Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) / multi-factor authentication (MFA) on any platform/service you can. It makes logging in a little longer but it makes these kinds of attacks much harder to pull off.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Suggested password manager: Bitwarden

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Whatever password manager you choose don't choose last pass lasspass breach

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

They'll all get hacked sooner or later. Ironically, a physical paper notebook might be the safest option right now.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago

if by all you mean the closed source ones where they probably don't even encrypt your passwords, sure

but open source ones (bitwarden) are really good and have a clear track record, you can even verify they encrypt everything by checking the source code.

If you wanna go ultra paranoid, however, you can also use something like keepassxc, where not only it gets encrypted, but it stays on your device.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Or an encrypted db like KeePass or KeePass XC and your own storage sync arrangement. It has the advantage of not storing your passwords alongside everyone else's.

But a decent password manager will be better protected than LastPass was, even if hackers steal the database. If you use a good one and a strong master password which you keep secret, the risk from that kind of attack is not great. They'll get useless encrypted data.

Of course there are still other attacks like your master password being stolen through a keylogger, so two-factor authentication is important too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Evening has an upside and a downside.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

If it is data someone can get it.

I do not know the solution. In a few years password managers will be seen as bad things, it's a collection of all your passwords ffs how is that really any safer?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

If it's stored locally, has a strong password (it should be a very strong passphrase. I don't know how long mine is, but more than 40 characters), and is encrypted (which any good password manager should be), then it should be fine. I don't see any issue, at least not a reasonable alternative. Now using a password manager service that you're trusting with your data probably isn't a great idea.

I use KeepassXC. It's free and open source. The android app I use is KeepassDX, though there are others, and I use Synchthing to synchronize changes between devices.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago

Not if it's encrypted ;-)

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 years ago (2 children)

This only happened because we expected it to happen.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

So we caused it. Got it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

What should have 23andme done?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm always astonished by the amount of information that people give away freely without securing it properly.

As for yet another billion dollar company's data being stolen... well... that's just a normal Friday. I'm not one for government intervention, especially considering how our governments act nowadays, but I seriously think that our privacy laws should be a lot more useful and a lot more severe.

I don't even know what this company was thinking, what goes through someone's brain to not stop for 20 seconds and think that storing this information unencrypted and just behind a simple login screen is a bad idea? Isn't it just blatantly obvious that they should've used e2e encryption? Require people to generate a key before they send their sample? Or if you want to make it moron proof, was it really impossible to write a unique seed phrase on each box and require users to type that to see their PRIVATE GENETIC INFORMATION?

I'm not anti capitalism, but the audacity of certain companies especially in the us is a sight to behold

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

they wouldn't be able to give info to the feds if it was encrypted

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

We desperately need data privacy laws like the EU. I think a lot of people are totally ignorant w/ respect to what bad actors (whether they’re hackers or private companies) can actually do with their data.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

GDPR is honestly not that good, it's a step in the right direction but it's not even close to being a decent solution.

We should consider implementing penalties harsh enough to actually incentivize behavioral change. Ideally, we’d see a system where a failure to reform would result in fines doubling each subsequent month, ensuring that even a giant like Google feels the sting, otherwise nothing is gonna change.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I contacted them to find out if my account was hacked and their automated system claimed they have not experienced a breach and then tried to connect me with an actual person.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago

Verify they're a person by having them read you the last 4 base pairs of their DNA.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago

Well they weren’t technically hacked, so that’s probably why they responded the way they did.

They literally used people’s passwords to login.

If you re-use your passwords across multiple sites then that is what would put you at risk for this.

Just change your 23andMe to a unique password and you should be good.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's been a few hours of "waiting for an agent" without progress so I'm giving up for the day. I think 23andme must be very busy with unhappy customers, or is massively understaffed.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Both? Both!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Why not?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

and nobody was suprised

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Perfect example as to why you don't use the same password for every account you create on the internet. And use the same email address for everything you do. And like to use the same username on every site you sign up for.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah is it so hard to have like 50+ different email addresses as well as passwords for them?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I know that’s a joke but even Apple offers that in iCloud. I for sure use different passwords but forget that obscured email is even an option.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

It has already been handed over to the governments of the world