Last week, Veritas Genetics, a consumer-facing DNA testing company, suffered a security breach affecting customer information in its database. Veritas offers whole-genome sequencing to consumers for $599. The security incident affected its customer portal, which Veritas said does not contain genetic data, DNA test results or health records. How did that information remain protected from the unauthorized access to the customer portal? Veritas actually segregates it genomic data on separate systems for this exact reason. However, Veritas did not indicate what information was affected, only that a handful of customers were affected, and that once it discovered the unauthorized access, it fixed the issue and launched an investigation. The forensic investigation is ongoing and Veritas said it will notify those affected in accordance with applicable laws.

As of July 2019, Veritas said it has sequenced 5,000 genomes, with a goal of more than 15,000 by 2021. We will keep you updated of any new reports about this security incident.

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