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Science Panel Recommends Censoring Bird Flu Papers
Morty writes "The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) has recommended that details of two research papers involving Avian Flu not be published because of security concerns. At least one of the research groups says that their work should be logically reproducible. The NSABB's censorship recommendations do not (currently) have the force of law, but Science and Nature voluntarily delayed publication."
These people are an official panel of the US Department of Health. From Wikipedia:
It is tasked with recommending policies on such questions as how to prevent published research in biotechnology from aiding terrorism, without slowing scientific progress.
Just in case you've never heard of them (I know I haven't).
I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
If they don't want anyone to read the papers, they should print off millions of copies with an official-looking government cover, then send them out all over the country with big letters on the envelope: "Important Information from Your Government".
That guarantees no-one will read it.
When security vulnerabilities are discovered in a piece of software (that is not open source), the release of that information may be delayed to allow sufficient time for the developers to patch the vulnerability. This organisation is basically asking that the release of this information be delayed until such a time as it is irrelevant. The problem we see with this is that people will always find the unreleased vulnerabilities, and it is entirely possible that this will happen in this case, but it would be a bit more catastrophic than a 0-day IIS vulnerability.
Anonymous Coward
Call Dustin Hoffman and tell him Gary Sinese is immune
It's the supporting cast you have to worry about. From the Washington Post article:
"Fears of bad actors spreading a mutant, highly transmissible virus suffuse the three-page note published by the board."
Just look at the fact that the bird flu story is directly after then Angry Birds story. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm waking up at 3am and later about 5-something AM, but I think there's more than just a casual connection here. Look at the facts:
1. Both about birds.
2. Both about people unable to control themselves.
3. One is about a bird virus, the other about birds going viral.
There is something at play here... not sure what it is just yet...
Afaik, this research is also locked down and kept secret in Europe for the same reasons as in the US. These strains of flu viruses are well understood and is probably one of the easiest to modify given the knowledge and research already done. I know little of the subject, but let's say the Stuxnet code was published and all that was needed to make it take down 70% of the nuclear plants in the world at the same time by simply uncommenting a ''Fuxx0rThemAllSimultaneously()' function call. Even a novice programmer would figure that out. Maybe that flu virus is analogous, and requires not much else than a novice fucking around with it to make it uber-deadly. I'd prefer they kept it hidden.
Can I light a sig ?
What "starts"? Withholding scientific publications because of various "national security" concerns is most definitely not a new practice.
What they actually did was create a NEW strain of the virus, which was physically transmissible. Before they bred this transmissible virus via ferrets, it was not easily transmitted to humans.
So what they did was actually create a superflu... one with a high mortality rate in humans and is easily transmissible. Whereas before these experiments, it already had a high mortality rate, but was not easy to transmit.
These were extrememly dangerous experiments that should never have been carried out. The labs where they did this work do make mistakes... we know because they have suffered loss of containment in the past!
If you want to read more about it, just google "H5N1" and "ferret".
Anyone who has half-a-background in virology would have had this stroke of inspiration by now. So what has been accomplished with this ban? Well, lot's of attention has now been brought on the matter to alert the quarter-brained ones.
Shh.
[...] but let's say the Stuxnet code was published [...]
Most of it was decompiled and published here. You can find all the binaries online if you're really interested. Hiding the results is just security by obscurity. The Dutch scientist didn't perform some magic trick that nobody else can do. Doesn't make it any less scary though.
Since they'd kill their own people and snuff out their cause.
However that still leaves the deranged , which unfortunately there are a lot of on the planet. Though whether they could be deranged enough AND smart enough at the same time to do it is another matter.
false complacency
are you telling us it is impossible for someone to create something lethal and easily transmissible and release it, by mistake or on purpose?
if you are going to grant it is impossible but unlikely, do you not grant that the consequences are huge?
and giant tsunamis will never strike nuclear plants
and religious fundamentalists will never fly planes into office towers
there's many kinds of ignorant folly in this world
read, and educate yourself as to how your psychology and cognition fails you, and us:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The important atomic bomb secret was that it could be done.
The important secret here is that "university-based scientists in the Netherlands and Wisconsin created a version of the so-called H5N1 influenza virus that is highly lethal and easily transmissible between ferrets."
Assume that there are terrorists out there who wish to develop a virological weapon, and have the smarts and the wherewithal to do so. They now know that the H5N1 virus is a good place to start and that there's a winning combination to be found. Holding back the precise blueprint isn't going to delay things much. You have to assume the terrorists are capable of doing research-quality work. It sounds rather as if researchers in the Netherlands and Wisconsin both found answers indepedently. It's quite possible that the terrorists, working on their own, will find something original and better than either of them.
What suppressing the research might do is make it difficult for other researchers to experiment with protective measures against them.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!