Confidential British medical data landed on Chinese Alibaba website

British technology minister Ian Murray told the House of Commons that the information of about 500,000 volunteers in a comprehensive health database was found to be for sale on the Alibaba e-commerce platform.

He said the government had worked with the charity, the Chinese government and Alibaba to ensure all three listings involving participant data had been removed after being alerted to the data breach on Monday.

“I would like to thank the Chinese government for the speed and seriousness with which it has worked with us to help us remove these listings and is working to remove any further listings,” Murray said.

The minister said the biobank has since revoked access to research institutions identified as sources of information sold online.

“We have asked the biobanking charity to suspend further access to its data until they develop technical solutions to prevent data from the current platform being downloaded in this way again. I can confirm to the House that the suspension is now in place,” he said.

UK Biobank is a not-for-profit charity independent of government that brings together data donated by volunteer participants.

It is then shared with researchers around the world to make significant scientific discoveries aimed at improving patient health.

Such research includes discovering genes that influence heart disease or cancer risk, identifying new ways to predict dementia, early warning signs of cancer, understanding immunity to COVID-19, and working to detect Parkinson’s disease early.

“This is one of the most successful and important studies of its kind and will continue to benefit patients in the UK and around the world. We are all grateful to those involved in this landmark study that is so important for the health of us all,” Murray said.

“However, I would like to reassure the House up front that Biobank has stated that the data does not contain names, addresses, contact details or phone numbers of participants. The government has spoken to the supplier today and they believe no purchases were made before the three listings were removed,” he said.

UK Biobank has reported it to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office and is investigating how the data ended up being sold online “as a matter of priority”.

Professor Sir Rory Collins, chief executive and principal investigator of UK Biobank, sent a reassuring message to attendees and thanked the government for its intervention.

Collins said: “Alibaba, with the support of the British and Chinese governments, quickly removed these listings before any sales could be made. This was a clear breach of the contracts signed by these academic institutions and their access, as well as that of the individuals involved, has been suspended.”

“We understand that the existence of these lists, even temporarily, is concerning to you. We want to assure you that all data is de-identified; they do not contain any personally identifiable information,” he said in the message.

Collins confirmed that the charity has temporarily blocked access to the globally accessible research platform while further steps are taken to prevent similar breaches in the future.

He added: “By responsibly making data available to scientists around the world, UK Biobank is allowing discoveries to be made that would otherwise not be possible, leading to new ways to prevent and treat disease, and leading to better health for us all.”

The government stressed it was taking the incident “extremely seriously” and would soon publish new guidance on controlling research data.

This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.