The UK Biobank, the UK's flagship genomic and medical database built from 500,000 volunteers, and its April 2026 breach.
The full datasets covering all 500,000 volunteers were leaked and advertised on Alibaba — not by hacking but by a contract breach.
On April 23, 2026, Minister Ian Murray told the Commons that three accredited (Chinese) research institutions who had legitimately downloaded the data breached their contracts, putting the datasets up on Alibaba; the incident shows 'safe' state biobanks become porous once shared into global research networks (source: Hansard, 2026-04-23).
It shows that even carefully guarded national health data can leak once it's plugged into international research partners. Legitimate access, not a break-in, was the weak point.