News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Working with the FBI. Parent comment

Re:One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Worki... by politician on Friday February 01, 2019 @06:50PM (#19059916)
Exactly, while DNA may identify an individual with high precision, we have to trust that that DNA was actually associated with the location or event.

Consider a public bathroom: how much DNA is at that location? How much is relevant to the event?

Consider a corrupt lab tech: The DNA at the event might be reported as DNA from their database. Does a defense attorney get to see the untainted sample?

Consider a corrupt/hacked DNA database: The database might report that the DNA belongs to one individual when it actually doesn't. Does a defense attorney even get to see the source code?

In these scenarios, the link to any individual is either of little consequence, or fraudulent.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One of the Biggest At-Home DNA Testing Companies Is Worki... by carbocation on Friday February 01, 2019 @06:52PM (#19059928)
And in case this sounds implausible, a corrupt lab tech handled 60,000 cases in MA:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/annie-dookhan-chemist-at-mass-c...

[ Parent | on HN ]