DNA Hackers Will Exploit You as Easily as Your PC

From the "freaky files" of our probable not-too-distant future comes the following article. If people realized what power their DNA holds, particularly in the hands of someone who might not be looking out for your best interests, society would be taking things a lot more seriously when it comes to things like DNA testing and other collections of biological sampling. Would you trust a cop in a random traffic stop enough to hand over your bank account password to them? Probably not, but this is by far a lot worse. Not even because of potential abuses by the powers-that-be. But because of the risk that your DNA data might wind up in the hands of criminals and terrorists.

DNA Hackers: Synthetic biology weaponized virus, zero-day exploit to infect your brain?


From the let's get futuristically freaky department, future hacking crimes could take a decidedly sinister twist; not hacking to breach systems but brains, bodies and behaviors. This DNA hacking goes way beyond potentially using police bees to bust biohackers, or even storing unhackable data in box of bio-encrypted bacteria. It's not science fiction to hack insulin pumps or to use jamming signals to stop hackers from lethal pacemaker attacks, but now bioengineers and security futurists are warning that the day is coming when criminals and bioterrorists hunt for vulnerabilities that will give a new meaning to zero-day exploits. In the future, a weaponized virus will aim to infect you, your brain and body biology, and not just your computer or mobile device.

While some people resist the idea of needing antivirus or other security software defenses for their smartphones, in the world of synthetic biology, a world where bits, bytes, atoms and biology mix dreams with nightmare realities, it could be lethal to lag behind in patching potential vulnerabilities. Some day, when you hear about something going 'viral,' it will not apply to an idea or video but to a DNA hack going viral to infect the masses. When a computer is infected with malware or a virus, you can reformat a hard drive, but will a future security scenario include needing to worry about BSOD and reformatting your brain?

Read the rest of the article from Computerworld here: http://blogs.computerworld.com/19409/dna_hackers_synthetic_biology_weaponized_virus_0day_exploit_to_infect_your_brain