Top California sperm bank suffers embarrassing leak

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California Cryobank confirmed suffering a data breach in 2024
Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and more were stolen
The company is offering credit monitoring services to some customers

One of the largest sperm banks in the United States has suffered a cyberattack in which it lost sensitive customer data.

California Cryobank confirmed the news in a filing with the Maine Office of the Attorney General, as well as in a data breach notification letter being sent out to affected individuals.

In the notification letter, the company said that it detected suspicious activity on its network on April 21, 2024, and isolated potentially affected devices from the network.

What about Donor IDs?

"Through our investigation, CCB determined that an unauthorized party gained access to our IT environment and may have accessed and/or acquired files maintained on certain computer systems between April 20, 2024 and April 22, 2024," the letter says.

California Cryobank is a sperm and egg bank that provides reproductive services, including sperm donation, egg freezing, and genetic screening. It is among the largest sperm banks in the United States, offering a diverse range of donors and services, and operating in all 50 states and more that two dozen countries around the world.

A more thorough investigation, which lasted almost a year, CCB concluded that different personal data was exposed for customers, such as names, bank accounts and routing numbers, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, payment card numbers, and/or health insurance information. It did not say how many people were affected.

It is unclear if donor information, such as donor ID numbers, was stolen in the attack, as well. When a person donates sperm, they are assigned an ID number, and their identity remains hidden until the child turns 18 and decides to learn more about their biological father. Leaking ID numbers could be a major privacy concern.

The company has offered a year’s worth of credit monitoring to people whose Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers were exposed in the attack.

Via BleepingComputer

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Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.