Chrome Holding Co., the company formerly known as23andMe, is facing a lawsuit filed by California AttorneyGeneral Rob Bonta over a massive security breach in 2023 that compromised millions of people’s sensitive data. Bonta is accusing the company of misleading customers and failing to protect their”sensitive personal information and genetic data related to their health, genetic predispositions and risk factors, biological relatives, ancestry and ethnicity.” The incident had affected 7 million users across the US, the lawsuit said, 855,541 whom were California residents.

23andMe, which offered customers DNA testing kits so they can find out their ancestral origins and genetic health risks, admitted back in 2023 that bad actors were able to access users’ accounts through credential stuffing. Bonta argued that companies, especially one that collects genetic data, should know to guard against such a common method of cyberattack.

It wasn’t just credential stuffing that allowed the bad actors to steal millions of private information. After using the attack method to break into14,000 accounts, they then exploited a vulnerability in the website’s DNA Relatives feature to access data from more customers. Bonta said the company’s security measures were so lax, the hackers were able to operate undetected inside its system for five months. He added that the company only started investigating after the bad actors had already started selling stolen user data on the dark web and demanding a ransom.

Bonta accused 23andMe of omitting critical information when it informed customers about the breach. He said the company downplayed the sensitivity of the stolen data and claimed that the DNA Relatives feature was “essentially public,” all while it was secretly negotiating with the bad actors who were highlighting the inclusion of information about Asian American and Pacific Islanders, as well as Jewish users, in the dataset they were selling.

“The sale of this data on the dark web took place amidst a period of mounting anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander and antisemitic hate and violence — and explicitly called attention to the deeply personal and identifying nature of that information,” Bonta wrote. “This is disturbing and incredibly dangerous.”

23andMefiled for bankruptcy in March 2025. As notes, it also faced a class-action lawsuit that accused the company of failing to protect its customers, and a judge overseeing its bankruptcy had proved a $50 million settlement earlier this year.

Looking forthe most recentMini Crossword answer?Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

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Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: “Whatcha ___?”
Answer: DOIN

5A clue: “Whatcha ___?”
Answer: UPTO

6A clue: Ecosystem that includes the bristlemouth, the most common vertebrate on Earth (roughly 1 quadrillion organisms)
Answer: OCEAN

7A clue: Marx who wrote “Das Kital”
Answer: KARL

8A clue: Period at a hotel
Answer: STAY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Old gold coin of Europe
Answer: DUCAT

2D clue: Performance at Milan’s La Scala or Nles’s Teatro di San Carlo
Answer: OPERA

3D clue: Home to Milan and Nles
Answer: ITALY

4D clue: Prefix with starter or smoker
Answer: NON

6D clue: proves
Answer: OKS

The company was doing a hotfire test to prepare for New Glenn’s next mission.

My Oura Ring 4 is the smallest, most discreet piece of technology I own, and yet sometimes I still find it too big.

My preference is for dainty, rather than chunky jewelry – pretty things that will adorn my fingers, ears, wrist and neck. It’s an aesthetic choice, but I also value the comfort and practicality of smaller trinkets. The size of my current Oura Ring means that I need to remove it when lifting weights in order to get good grip. It’s a shame, because I’d really prefer to keep my wearable technology on my body when I’m working out.

But maybe I’ll find this problem remedied with the newly announced Oura Ring 5, which I was thrilled to hear is a whopping 40% smaller than its predecessor. We’re talking about a matter of millimeters here, but this is a huge overall reduction in size that will likely result in a very different experience of wearing a smart ring.

Our tech often requires compromises from us, and some of these compromises are easier to make than others. I prefer a larger phone for the size of its screen, for example, even though I sometimes struggle to use it with one hand or to fit it in my pockets. Such a compromise on size is much harder for me to justify with wearable tech, when I can physically feel it against my body every moment of every day.

Not only is Oura’s success in drastically reducing the size of its ring a feat of engineering, but it also shows the company is doing something that many wearables makers have failed at for years. It’s actively listening to feedback from its customers, especially its female customers, and prioritizing that feedback to make big changes when designing the next iteration of the product.

Smartwatch makers, learn from Oura

Take smartwatches, for instance. We’re well over a decade into the smartwatch boom, and yet many companies are still making watches that are far too big for women’s wrists and often feel deeply impractical for everyday wear. Asking for smaller devices seems to only result in marginally diminished sizes.

That’s because many tech companies are reluctant to go back to the drawing board in the way Oura has done for the Ring 5. Reducing its size by 40% wasn’t simply a matter of shrinking it – the device needed to be reengineered from the ground up, without making any trade-offs to its battery life or sensing cability.

In a briefing with Oura ahead of launch, I learned that it had rebuilt the sensing architecture inside the ring with fewer but more powerful and sensing pathways. The sensing architecture was also rotated 180 degrees in places for fit. The company redesigned the battery to make it smaller while offering a week’s worth of charge and used more powerful LEDs designed to collect more accurate and consistent data, even though the ring is thinner.

From the outside, the Ring 5 might just look like a shrunk-down Oura Ring. Inside, it’s a completely reimagined product.

I’m really looking forward to seeing if the Ring 5 is small enough that I don’t feel the need to remove it when I’m lifting heavy weights or doing other manual tasks. I’d also love smartwatch makers to take their cue from Oura here. It’s time for wearable tech that truly prioritizes our all-day comfort, no matter how small our wrists are.

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