--- title: UK Biobank back online soon, months after someone tried... description: UK Biobank says its research platform is now secure and will reopen soon, months after the April attack that put 500,000 volunteers' health data up for sale on... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/uk-biobank-back-online-soon-months-after-someone-tried-to-sell-500k-people-s-data-on-alibaba-yckbetcdf twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: UK Biobank back online soon, months after someone tried to sell 500k people's data on Alibaba | daily.dev og:description: UK Biobank says its research platform is now secure and will reopen soon, months after the April attack that put 500,000 volunteers' health data up for sale on... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/uk-biobank-back-online-soon-months-after-someone-tried-to-sell-500k-people-s-data-on-alibaba-yckbetcdf og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/yCKbETcDf.png og:image:alt: UK Biobank back online soon, months after someone tried to sell 500k people's data on Alibaba og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # UK Biobank back online soon, months after someone tried to sell 500k people's data on Alibaba **[The Register](https://daily.dev/sources/theregister)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary UK Biobank says its research platform is now secure and will reopen soon, months after the April attack that put 500,000 volunteers' health data up for sale on Alibaba. The UKB-RAP has been locked for all researchers trying to access its dataset since then, which is used by over 20,000 researchers. CEO Sir Rory Collins says an independent cybersecurity firm has confirmed the fixes and recommended reopening. New restrictions include manual output checking before downloads, 15-minute auto logout with 2FA re-authentication, no SSH access, isolated browsing for interactive tools, and a ban on building public apps and sharing tools with external colleagues until the checking system is fully running. Researchers caught leaving de-identified data in code face sanctions. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why has the UK Biobank research platform been offline since the Alibaba data leak? The UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (UKB-RAP) was locked for all medical researchers after an April attack led to 500,000 volunteers' data being listed for sale on Alibaba. UK Biobank says it has since completed security work, confirmed by an independent cybersecurity report, and is waiting on approval from health data controllers and the UK government before reopening to its 20,000-plus researchers. _Teams rebuilding trust after a breach can follow ongoing coverage of incident response on daily.dev._ ### What new security restrictions is UK Biobank adding to its research platform after the breach? Researchers will face a manual output checking system reviewing files before download, automatic logout after 15 minutes of inactivity with two-factor re-authentication required, no SSH access into jobs, isolated browsing for interactive tools that blocks local data transfer, and a temporary ban on building public apps or sharing tools externally. _Developers hardening access controls on sensitive datasets can track similar lockdown patterns on daily.dev._ ### What happens to researchers who leave de-identified participant data in their code repositories on UK Biobank's platform? Researchers found with de-identified participant data in their code face sanctions for breaching the Material Transfer Agreement, are forced to move their analyses onto UKB-RAP, must delete any downloaded data, and undergo additional training before regaining platform access. UK Biobank runs daily automated scans of repositories to catch these errors. _Anyone building data-handling policies for sensitive repos can follow similar compliance cases on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [UK Biobank data from 500,000 volunteers listed for sale on Alibaba after Chinese research institutions broke access agreements](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-biobank-data-from-500-000-volunteers-listed-for-sale-on-alibaba-after-chinese-research-institutio-x8eppxbma) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [500k Biobank volunteers' data listed for sale on Alibaba](https://daily.dev/posts/500k-biobank-volunteers-data-listed-for-sale-on-alibaba-cjtohtn08) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK Biobank health data keeps ending up on GitHub](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-biobank-health-data-keeps-ending-up-on-github-46vpnfoa2) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK Visa Portal exposed thousands of applicants’ passports and selfies — then called the lawyers on us](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-visa-portal-exposed-thousands-of-applicants-passports-and-selfies-then-called-the-lawyers-on-u-5gqs69q3t) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#authentication](https://daily.dev/tags/authentication), [#healthcare](https://daily.dev/tags/healthcare), [#data-breach](https://daily.dev/tags/data-breach) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-biobank-back-online-soon-months-after-someone-tried-to-sell-500k-people-s-data-on-alibaba-yckbetcdf) ```json 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