ISTOCK, FATIDOThe account information of more than 92 million users of online genealogy platform MyHeritage has been compromised, according to a statement released by the company on Monday (June 4). Last October, in what the statement calls a “cybersecurity incident,” email addresses and encrypted password information were leaked from the company’s website by unknown actors.
The breach was first brought to the company’s attention by a security researcher, who discovered a file called “myheritage” on a private server, according to the statement. “Our Information Security Team received the file from the security researcher, reviewed it, and confirmed that its contents originated from MyHeritage and included all the email addresses of users who signed up to MyHeritage up to October 26, 2017, and their hashed passwords.”
The statement notes that there is “no reason to believe” that other information—such as credit card numbers (which are not stored by MyHeritage) or DNA data (which are stored on separate MyHeritage systems)—has been affected. Other genealogy platforms such as 23andMe take a similar approach to distributing information, keeping email and password information separate from ...
