WORLDTECHUK Biobank readies relaunch of research platform after health data breach
The UK Biobank is getting ready to reopen its Research Analysis Platform, which more than 20,000 medical researchers have been unable to use since an April attack. According to The Register, the breach exposed health data belonging to 500,000 volunteers.
Relaunch built around tighter controls
The charity, which manages 30 petabytes of genomic and health information, says independent security experts have confirmed the platform is secure. Rather than reopening everything at once, it intends to bring the service back in stages.
The relaunch adds a manual check on output before files can be downloaded. Further measures include mandatory two-factor authentication, which asks for a second form of identity beyond a password, sessions that time out after 15 minutes of inactivity, and limits on data transfers.
Effects of the attack on researchers
Following the April attack, sensitive volunteer data appeared for sale on an e-commerce website, and the platform has remained out of reach for researchers ever since.
Chief Executive Sir Rory Collins observed that most researchers have followed the data deletion requirements. A number of individuals, however, are still barred because they did not remove de-identified participant data from their private code repositories.
Final sign-off still outstanding
The organisation is awaiting final approval from government health data controllers before operations can resume. The reporting gives no date for the reopening.
Open questions
- When will government health data controllers grant final approval for the relaunch?
- How many of the barred researchers will regain access once their data is removed?