Scope of the collection

This collection includes documented events, historical governance disputes, policy developments, research capabilities, and a labeled threat model. Inclusion does not mean that an organization suffered a breach. Unknown counts and unassigned scores remain null in downloads.

65 records

Genetic security case records, first edition
IDCase / principleDateSectorEvidenceGERGPR
001Stranger Visions
Unintentional Genetic Disclosure		2012–2013Art / public spacewell sourcedGER-1GPR-2
002Golden State Killer
Kinship Leakage		2018Law enforcementwell sourcedGER-3GPR-3
00323andMe 2023
Genetic Graph Amplification		2023Consumer geneticsofficially disclosedGER-3GPR-2
004Havasupai
Purpose Drift / Secondary-Use Consent Failure		1990s–2010Research governancehistorical governance caseGER-4Unassigned
005Henrietta Lacks / HeLa
Familial Genomic Consent		1951 / 2013Biomedical researchhistorical governance caseGER-2GPR-5
006GEDmatch
Governance as a Security Control		2019 onwardGenetic genealogywell sourcedGER-3GPR-3
007Forensic DNA phenotyping
Genetic Inference		Research capabilityForensic sciencewell sourcedGER-0GPR-3
008Genomic laboratory ransomware
Genomic Infrastructure Compromise		Threat-model scenarioGenomic infrastructurethreat modelUnassignedUnassigned
009DOJ bulk genomic data
Genomic Sovereignty / Strategic Data Security		2025-04-08Security policyofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
010Agricultural genetic resources
Genetic Resource Resilience		Ongoing stewardshipAgriculturewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
0111Health / Vitagene FTC Enforcement
Deletion Integrity and Cloud Exposure		2023Consumer genetics and commercial dataofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
012GEDmatch 2020 Permissions Breach
Consent-State Integrity		2020Consumer genetics and commercial dataofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
013MyHeritage 2018 Breach: A Negative Control
Exposure Classification Accuracy		2018Consumer genetics and commercial dataofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
014Moore v. Regents Of The University Of California
Biospecimen Control Is Not One Right		1990Consent, ownership, and biospecimenshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
015Washington University v. Catalona
Custody, Ownership, and Withdrawal Are Distinct		2007Consent, ownership, and biospecimenshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
016Greenberg v. Miami Children's Hospital
Participant Contribution and Commercialization Drift		2003Consent, ownership, and biospecimenshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
017Texas Newborn Blood Spots
Collection Necessity Does Not Authorize Unlimited Reuse		2009–2011Consent, ownership, and biospecimenshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
018Kennewick Man / The Ancient One
Ancestral Genomic Governance		1996–2017Consent, ownership, and biospecimenshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
019Chaco Canyon Ancient DNA
Community Standing Survives Temporal Distance		2017Consent, ownership, and biospecimenshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
020Nuu-Chah-Nulth Blood-Sample Return
Specimen Mobility and Community Control		1980s–2000sConsent, ownership, and biospecimenshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
021Icelandic Population Imputation
Population Imputation Spillover		2015Re-identification and inferencewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
022Homer Et Al. And Aggregate GWAS Data
Membership Inference from Summary Data		2008Re-identification and inferencewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
023Gymrek Surname Inference
Quasi-Identifier Fusion		2013Re-identification and inferencewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
024James Watson's Redacted APOE Region
Correlated-Data Leakage		2008Re-identification and inferencewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
025Genomic Beacon Re-Identification
Query Interface Leakage		2015Re-identification and inferencewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
026Personal Genome Project Open Consent
Residual-Risk Transparency		Ongoing research programConsent, ownership, and biospecimenshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
027S. And Marper v. United Kingdom
Retention Proportionality		2008Law enforcement and forensic geneticshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
028Maryland v. King
Collection Threshold and Purpose Expansion		2013Law enforcement and forensic geneticshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
029Kuwait's Universal DNA Law
Population-Scale Collection Limits		2015–2017Law enforcement and forensic geneticshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
030FamilyTreeDNA And FBI Matching
Material Policy Change		2019 onwardConsumer genetics and commercial datawell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
031Buckskin Girl / Marcia King
Restorative Identification		2018Law enforcement and forensic geneticswell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
032Bear Brook Identifications
Multi-Person Kinship Reconstruction		1985–2025Law enforcement and forensic geneticswell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
033Angie Dodge / Christopher Tapp
Genetic Evidence as Corrective Control		1996–2021Law enforcement and forensic geneticswell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
034The Phantom Of Heilbronn
Collection-Supply-Chain Contamination		1990s–2009Integrity, provenance, and laboratory failurewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
035Adam Scott / LGC Forensics Contamination
Workflow Carryover and Contextual Review		2011–2012Integrity, provenance, and laboratory failurewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
036Lukis Anderson And Secondary DNA Transfer
Presence of DNA Is Not Proof of Presence		2012–2013Integrity, provenance, and laboratory failurewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
037Burlington Northern Santa Fe Genetic Testing
Genetic Testing as Institutional Power		2001–2002Discrimination and institutional useofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
038Lowe v. Atlas Logistics
Genetic Protection Is Not Limited to Disease Risk		2015Discrimination and institutional usehistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
039Fabricut And The First EEOC GINA Settlement
Family History Is Genetic Information		2013Discrimination and institutional useofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
040Norman-Bloodsaw v. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
General Consent Is Not Specific Consent		1998Discrimination and institutional usehistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
041The He Jiankui CRISPR-Baby Experiment
Heritable-Edit Governance Failure		2018–2019Reproductive and heritable geneticswell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
042Donald Cline Fertility Fraud
Reproductive Provenance Fraud		Historical treatment / later discoveriesReproductive and heritable geneticswell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
043Jan Karbaat And The Dutch Donor Registry Failure
Genetic Auditability of Reproductive Systems		Historical treatment / later comparisonsReproductive and heritable geneticswell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
044CHA Fertility Center Embryo Mix-Up
Reproductive Sample Identity Integrity		2019 litigationReproductive and heritable geneticsallegedUnassignedUnassigned
045Illumina Local Run Manager Vulnerabilities
Instrument Software Is Part of the Genome		2022 disclosureGenomic cybersecurity and infrastructureofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
046Illumina Universal Copy Service Vulnerability
Shared-Component Blast Radius		2023 disclosureGenomic cybersecurity and infrastructureofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
047DNA-Encoded Malware Proof Of Concept
Cross-Domain Input Validation		2017Genomic cybersecurity and infrastructurewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
048Ambry Genetics Email-Account Breach
Unstructured Communications Are Genetic Data Stores		2020Consumer genetics and commercial dataofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
049DNA Diagnostics Center 2021 Breach
Legacy-System Discovery Failure		2021 / 2023 enforcementConsumer genetics and commercial dataofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
050Veritas Genetics Portal Incident
Interface Exposure Must Be Scoped by Data Class		2019Consumer genetics and commercial dataofficially disclosedUnassignedUnassigned
05123andMe Bankruptcy And Data Stewardship
Corporate-Continuity Risk		2025 sale processConsumer genetics and commercial datawell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
052GISAID Access And Pandemic-Data Governance
Repository Governance Is Availability Security		2023 disputes / ongoing repositoryPathogen and research-data governancedisputedUnassignedUnassigned
053Deleted Early SARS-CoV-2 Sequences
Scientific Deletion Is Not Always Erasure		2021 publicationPathogen and research-data governancewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
054H5N1 Transmissibility Research And Publication
Information Hazard Governance		2011–2012Pathogen and research-data governancewell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
055Svalbard Seed Vault Water Intrusion
Environmental Assumptions Expire		2016 event / 2017 reportingGenetic resources, agriculture, and biodiversitywell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
056ICARDA Aleppo And The First Svalbard Withdrawal
Genetic-Resource Disaster Recovery		2015 onwardGenetic resources, agriculture, and biodiversitywell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
057The Vavilov Collection During The Siege Of Leningrad
Human Custodianship as a Security Control		1941–1944Genetic resources, agriculture, and biodiversitywell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
058Pavlovsk Experiment Station Development Threat
Land-Use Governance Can Destroy Genetic Assets		2010 development disputeGenetic resources, agriculture, and biodiversitywell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
059The Enola Bean Patent
Genetic Resource Misappropriation		1999–2009Genetic resources, agriculture, and biodiversityhistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
060Bowman v. Monsanto
Control of Replicating Genetic Technology		2013Genetic resources, agriculture, and biodiversityhistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
061Association For Molecular Pathology v. Myriad
Ownership Boundaries Around Genetic Information		2013Consent, ownership, and biospecimenshistorical governance caseUnassignedUnassigned
062Cavendish Bananas And Tropical Race 4
Genetic Monoculture Risk		Ongoing crop-disease threatGenetic resources, agriculture, and biodiversitywell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
063The Irish Potato Famine And Crop Uniformity
Diversity Is a Security Control		1840s–1850sGenetic resources, agriculture, and biodiversitywell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
064Digital Sequence Information And The Cali Fund
Benefit Sharing After Digitization		2024–2025 policy developmentGenetic resources, agriculture, and biodiversitywell sourcedUnassignedUnassigned
065Mass DNA Collection In Xinjiang And Tibet
Genetic Surveillance of Populations		2017–2024 reportingState surveillance and population securityallegedUnassignedUnassigned

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Evidence statuses, scoring, and uncertainty

Comparing records fairly

Filter by evidence status and sector before drawing conclusions from a group of records. The collection was selected to illustrate different security principles; it is not a complete census of events and cannot establish how common each problem is. The number of entries does not provide a denominator for estimating industry-wide risk.

When working with the downloads, retain the event type, source notes, and score rationale alongside numeric fields. A blank value means unassigned or unknown, not a score of zero. Keep reported profile counts separate from unique people, and do not count policy developments or hypothetical scenarios as confirmed breaches. These distinctions make the exported records useful beyond the website.