Kiwi start-up pushes better DNA security measures
The risks of genetic data being misused led start-up company GeneCrypt to team up with Auckland’s Unitec Institute of Technology to develop a way of encrypting individuals’ DNA.
Now GeneCrypt’s tech, which encrypts genetic data and allows users to select who can see their DNA and which parts they can see, is being pitched to investors as it seeks to scale up into a full commercial product.
Team leader Denis Lavrov describes DNA as being an individual’s most important data and describes the lax security with which genetic information has been treated until now as ‘‘absolutely mad’’.
The potential misuses of a person’s DNA were many and varied, Lavrov said, ranging from health insurance companies using it to discriminate against those with genetic predispositions, to employers deciding who to hire, to criminals using it for blackmail.
Technological advances have made it inexpensive for anyone to have their DNA mapped, with biotech companies such as 23andMe sending out postal kits for anyone to have their genetics sequenced.
‘‘What is even more mad is we’ve attended quite a few conferences by people who do these direct to consumer tests and these guys often don’t even concern themselves with security,’’ he said. Lavrov said genetic data should be treated with the same security as banking or other medical information.
‘‘There have been cases already where the genetic data was used in a way that perhaps the original owner didn’t intend it to be used.
‘‘For example, in the US there have been cases where insurance companies have supposedly used genetic information to discriminate between health insurance customers to see if one [person] would be more eligible for insurance at a lower premium and the other too much of a risk.
‘‘There have been cases where criminals have been identified through their familial connections through databases like 23andMe, where their sibling has done a genetic test, [but] the criminal himself hasn’t.’’
There was also the opportunity for blackmail. ‘‘The genes they are sequencing will tell other information about you that, in the wrong hands, could be used to identify maybe you’re susceptible to a heart attack, or maybe you’re at risk of cancer, and that sort of information can be used to blackmail or for all sorts of nasty things.’’