LONDON — Health data charity UK Biobank suffered a data breach that saw around 500,000 volunteers’ confidential information advertised for sale on Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba, DSIT minister Ian Murray told the Commons Thursday. Murray said the department became aware of the issue on Monday and that UK Biobank, which has close ties to the NHS, had suspended further access to the data at its request. The charity has referred itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
“I want to thank the Chinese government for the speed and seriousness with which they worked with us to remove these listings,” Murray added. The revelation marks the second time in as many months that UK Biobank has faced questions about data security. In March, a Guardian investigation revealed that data files had been inadvertently posted online, prompting the nonprofit to issue a statement reassuring participants that it had “no evidence of any of you being unwillingly identified.” UK Biobank said at the time it had taken steps to prevent such sharing going forward, including introducing mandatory training for researchers.
Rory Collins, chief executive and principal investigator of UK Biobank, said: “We take the protection of participants’ data extremely seriously and do not tolerate any form of data misuse. With support from the U.K. government, Chinese authorities and Alibaba, three listings for de-identified data were swiftly removed before a sale was made. The actions of these individuals are a clear breach of the contract they signed with UK Biobank and they, along with their academic institutions, immediately had their access suspended.
“We apologise for the concern this will cause and have already put in place technology, processes and a board-led review to stop this happening again. “We have also taken our research platform offline whilst we add a further upgrade that helps prevent de-identified data being taken out of the platform. We expect this to take three weeks. Our existing plans to implement an automated ‘airlock’ that checks files and data continues at pace.” This story has been updated to include a quote from UK Biobank.