What’s the most valuable piece of data owned by individuals? A look at recent data breaches suggested that financial information is sought by malicious actors to generate short-term gains, while health care information offers long-term opportunity for cybercriminals to wreak havoc.

4 November 2015, Security Intelligence

But here’s the bigger concern: As genome databases grow and access to this data becomes more commonplace, the distance between “unknown” and “maliciously compromised” begins to shrink. For cybercriminals, a bigger attack surface and the trickle-down effect of stored data from first to subcontracted third parties represents the ideal threat vector…Read more >>>

Genomic data shared via the Beacon Project are vulnerable to privacy breaches, scientists show.

29 October 2015, The Scientist

Anonymous patients whose DNA data is shared via a network of web servers—or beacons—set up by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health are at risk of being reidentified, according to a report published today (October 29) in The American Journal of Human Genetics…Read more >>>

One of the challenges will be ensuring that the data collected will be harnessed and used for good, without exposing patients to serious breaches of privacy.

24 September 2015, Medical Daily

“For these million people who are going to consent to say, ‘I’m going to be among the first in the country to give all of this data to science,’ we have to be very cognizant of this and need to build in lots of privacy protections,” said Dr. Eric Green, director of the Human Genome Research Institute. “We want anybody who’s a qualified researcher access to that data, but at the same time we need to build in appropriate protection so it’s not abused…Read more >>>

Craig Venter plans to keep the genomic data gathered at Human Longevity tight to the chest.

22 September 2015, MedCity News

We agree, though, that there are still significant issues that must be addressed in any government-funded and led precision medicine program. Issues surrounding who will have access to the data, privacy and patient medical/genomic records are some of the most pressing … Read more >>>

Gene-sequencing company’s CEO hopes to store the public’s DNA data in online trove.

19 August 2015, MIT Technology Review

And privacy? Helix will be “incredibly secure,” says Flatley. But let’s not forget the main objective here: to get you, the consumer, to willingly expose … Read more >>>

I have looked into my genome and seen … nothing much to worry about. … All this comes from my participation in the Personal Genome Project Canada ….

16 August 2015, MedPage Today

Another issue is the risks associated with what Scherer called the “full monty” — putting all your information out there.
The risks, while not huge, range from discrimination on the basis of genetics to simple loss of privacy, Greeley said.
While my name will not be attached to my data, I’m pretty much making the link right now for anyone who cares. … Read more >>>

Personalized interpretation is the next frontier in clinical genomics, but we won’t get there without sharing data representing all ethnic groups.

12 August 2015, The Scientist

Academic institutions have strict privacy protocols governing genomic data, so even when scientists want to share data across organizations, they are …Read more >>>

The National Institutes of Health last week announced that it has established a web resource to provide additional information on implementation of the Genomic Data Sharing Policy it put into effect earlier this year.

10 August 2015, GenomeWeb

The policy addresses, among other things, timelines for the submission and release of data for access by secondary investigators, privacy concerns, … Read more >>>

The White House’s Precision Medicine Initiative is widely viewed a harbinger of a genomics revolution – one that comes with massive potential, but with several challenges from both a technical and regulatory perspective.

27 July 2015, MedCity News

We must rethink privacy, the paper says – and take a critical look at the state of HIPAA and other such rules. This is already an issue being addressed by the Precision Medicine Initiative, and will undoubtedly progress as we continue to fold genomics data into our overarching health profiles. … Read more >>>

UK-based software firm Repositive has received a SMART grant of £50,000 (about $78,100) from Innovate UK, which it will use to develop its first commercial product for the genomics arena — an application that will help researchers make use of datasets containing sensitive information without compromising the security of the data and the privacy of its contributors.

27 July 2015, GenomeWeb

Meanwhile, the new funds from Innovate UK will support the development and commercialization of novel privacy-preserving technologies that would allow users to run queries on genomic datasets containing sensitive information and extract basic high-level statistics from these datasets without requiring levels of access that could compromise the privacy of the individual genome contributors … Read more >>>