Patrick Vallance says government working with Chinese officials to remove postings from Alibaba after Biobank data breach last week
There have been further listings of confidential health records of UK volunteers on the Chinese website Alibaba since the breach reported last week, and the government is braced for further leaks, the science minister has said.
Addressing a House of Lords debate on the attempted sale of data belonging to 500,000 UK Biobank volunteers, Patrick Vallance said the government had worked with Chinese officials to remove additional postings on the online marketplace.
“New listings will emerge – there have been additional listings posted since the government were made aware of the issue last week – and we continue to work with the Chinese government to remove them quickly,” Lord Vallance said.
The data is “de-identified”, meaning it does not include names, addresses or precise dates of birth. Vallance said there was a “low probability” of re-identification, but the breach should nonetheless serve as a “real wake-up call” for researchers.
