Brett Dickerson reports: Victims of past sexual attack who had their DNA collected in a outrage kit by the Oklahoma City constabulary department now face yet more uncertainness because of a data breach. rapine kits are used to collect DNA evidence by law enforcement agencies for sexual assault investigations. Saturday, those who had their DNA information stored by a contractor for OKCPD in connectedness to sexual assault investigations were informed by a U.S. post Office letter of the breach. The contractor is�DNA Solutions, Inc., a DNA search fellowship located in ok City. Read more at Oklahoma city Free Press.� DNA Solutions is closed today, but DataBreaches.net sent an email enquiry with a number of questions about their business and the incident. No reply was immediately received, but this stake will live updated if they answer when they re-open.� From their website, however, it does not appear that they are a HIPAA-covered entity or concern associate. as the loose press reporting indicates, the firm states that “Test samples and documentation for legal cases are stored up to 5 years after your test and then destroyed.”� But who determines whether it can be destroyed earlier? If the Oklahoma city police department contracts with them for forensic cases, doh they ever pass them or request earlier destruction?� And does the police department survey and monitor their contractor’s data security? DNA testing came up recently in another context:� a rapine victim whose DNA was collected and tested was subsequently charged with a dimension crime years later in an unrelated matter because law enforcement searched the victim DNA database for other purposes. As NPR reported: San Francisco officials are criticizing the city’s police department over what officials suppose is a newly discovered apply inside the department of searching a database containing DNA collected from sexual assault victims to identify them as possible criminal suspects. territory Attorney Chesa Boudin said using rapine kit DNA to look for suspects in separate investigations treats victims “like evidence, not human beings” and called for the praxis to end. in illumine of both of these breaches — i by external hackers and single by insiders misusing a database — is it time to debate or revisit the rights of crime victims whose DNA is collected and tested?� come victims know who is storing and securing their sample and their test results? make they have any right to direct its removal? Should those storing samples or test results be held to more rigorous security and privacy standards?
