Information leaks in genomic data: Inference attacks

Abstract Rapid and low-cost sequencing of genomes enabled the widespread use of genomic data in research studies and personalized customer applications, where genomic data are shared in public databases. Although the identities of the participants are anonymized in these databases, sensitive information about individuals can still be inferred. In the last few years, there have been several works addressing the security and privacy concerns on genomic data Naveed et al. [ 1 ]. In this chapter, we will focus on inference attacks on genomic data by considering (i) inference attacks on statistical genomic databases, (ii) inference attacks on genomic data-sharing beacons, (iii) inference attacks on kin genomic privacy, and (iv) inference attacks using genotype–phenotype associations. We will also provide some details of the attack techniques that we have proposed in the past.