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The UK’s technology minister, Ian Murray, has verified that health data of 500,000 individuals in the United Kingdom has been stolen and is being sold on the Chinese platform Alibaba.

Medical information is sourced from individuals in the UK Biobank, the largest collection of biological, health, and lifestyle data, gathered from volunteers and utilized by researchers globally for studies.

Murray stated that on Monday, April 20, the group notified the government that they had discovered its data being offered for sale by multiple vendors on Alibaba’s online marketplace in China.

“Biobank informed us that three listings which seem to offer UK Biobank participant data have been found. At least one of these three datasets appears to include information from all 500,000 UK Biobank participants,” Murray added.

As per the Biobank, the exposed information did not include participants’ names, addresses, contact information, or phone numbers.

“The government has contacted the vendor today, and they don’t think any purchases were made from the three listings prior to their removal,” said Murray.

He mentioned that the UK government had communicated with the Chinese government and the supplier to confirm that the listings were taken down.

I appreciate the Chinese government for the swift and earnest manner in which they collaborated with us to eliminate these listings and for their continued efforts to remove any additional listings,

Sir Rory Collins, the chief executive and lead researcher of UK Biobank, expressed regret in a letter to participants for the distress this event has caused and confirmed that personal identifying details are still protected and secure.

“Considering this event, we are implementing additional measures to improve our systems and ensure this does not occur again,” Collins said.

He stated that the organization has temporarily halted all access to the UK Biobank research platform as it implements a stringent cap on the maximum file size that can be downloaded from the system.