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Scientists Create "DNA Barcodes" To Thwart Counterfeiters
Zothecula writes "Earlier this year, we heard about a gun and a fogging system, both of which tag criminals with synthesized DNA. The idea is that when those people are apprehended later, they can be linked to the crime by analyzing the location- or event-specific DNA still on their skin or clothing. Now, scientists at the Technology Transfer Unit of Portugal's University of Aveiro are developing something similar – 'DNA barcodes' that can be applied to products, then subsequently read as a means of identification."
It's set a few years from now, when police DNA testing is ubiquitous. There was a very clever criminal who stumbled into a crime scene by accident. He had a spray bottle of "Stadium DNA" with him, so he squirted it around the room before leaving.
Tagging with DNA is fine, if you can pick out the exact molecule you need. But anything can be defeated.
John
Only needed is a cheap reader to check for artificial snake scales.
I don't see any way this can possibly fail. We all know it's very difficult for DNA to be replicated, and it certainly isn't self-replicating, so it's not as if some party could obtain the DNA, replicate it, and then place it on their counterfeit product.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Can I join in on your freenet discussions, I swear I don't work for the NSA and won't forward anything on to PRISM...
DNA doesn't hold up well in the environment. The reason it's used as a "measure of identity" is because we have really good technology for amplifying it.
When used as a marker in a commercial/industrial/everyday-exposure environment, I think it will fail quickly
Ironically, when discussing counterfit purses, there is already a better option that will not fail: you can sequence the proteins in the leather fairly easily, and those proteins can be a good MOI when you get enough coverage of the right sequences. You can't amplify the proteins, but the sensitivity for unamplified material is top-notch. So you can imagine that it's possible to identify the exact cow that produced a purse, and so long as you have a physical scrap of the purse left, you can still get a result. Contrast this to a DNA-barren purse because it sat in the sun too long.
Since you can't really amplify proteins, it's somewhat counterfit-proof as well, and the detection is less stochastic than with DNA, so it has potential to be more quantitative at trace levels.
Obviously this technology has other applications as well, which is why it's being funded by the FBI (forensics), DoD (body ID), etc. You can read more about it by looking up work by Glendon Parker, although it's not 100% public yet due to IP concerns, privacy (working with human samples), etc.
How about embedding RFID or NFC tags into the barrel and/or magazines that is logged by sensitive readers located in say for example street lights/traffic lights or any other public appliances that have power. Then take that data and make it public, via map boards and/or phone apps so that everyone has visibility on where a gun (not specific gun) is at any particular time. You could even go so far as to take this unique ID and use it together with an encrypted database of gun ID to registered person ID to also make public whether a gun is currently not either with it's owner or at a predetermined registered place and is moving or has been recently. If it's public then the carriers are more aware and the general public gets to know if there's a gun on the loose somewhere.
The actual data correlating this to an actual gun and it's current owner (and possibly location) could be reserved purely for court records/requirements. Yeah I know this is ever so slightly big brother like but there could be some form of encryption used to require a specific key to unlock the actual gun ID to person ID and this would be solely owned by the judiciary system.
I hereby release this concept into the public domain under copyright to me ConceptRat
Earlier this year, we heard about a gun and a fogging system
Pretty sure I heard about it last century.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
This is not about human DNA, it's synthesized. They already tag stuff with "micro markers" that are extremely hard to get all off. These micro markers have lots of "serial numbers" on them. By making specific "micro markers" that have DNA-style serial numbers, you can make the markers even smaller.
Unless you have your own synthesizer to make these micro markers yourself and you are able to make a zillion different serial numbers, you spray bottle of "stadium dna" won't help a thing here.
Then again, it's already common for criminals to steal hair from barbershops so they can litter a crime scene with random DNA samples. It's also not uncommon to steal DNA from criminals they want to frame for a crime and place that on a crime scene. DNA testing and finger prints are by no means a solid proof someone did commit the crime. It only proves that their DNA or finger prints were placed on the scene at a certain time.
Actually, most DNA "proof" is only a statistical probability. Given the fact that a large part of that probability is based on extremely common genes, the likelihood of someone's DNA being "unique" enough is rather limited. Just the fact that it's male DNA and from a certain ethnic group may rule out 7/8th of the world population easily, but more often than not, a male hispanic is a rather common denominator when you have to solve a drug crime just north of the Mexican border. There are many more genes that are common to a region or demographic that are typical to that region or demographic. Plotting those against a full world population and saying it increases the likelihood that someone from that demographic and region has a higher chance of being the source of that DNA isn't proper, but it's common to do that in DNA "proof". It'd be much more fair to look at the amount of people that actually match the identified markers in the immediate area of where the sample was found, the likelihood of them being a perpetrator and then do a statistical match. Chances are, you'll find that a large portion of the possible people that could have done the crime, have at least a lot of common denominators with the sample and you'll need to do a lot more thorough testing to find a single match that can rule out all other people on the planet, except identical twins.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Everyone can, freenetproject.org as described on slashdot in past (now works better with recent upgrades)
This is taken from a top secret paper titled-
"Advances In The Arbitrary Production of Guilt in Innocent Individuals- On The Way To Jury-Proof Convictions.
I'd link you you to it, but that would make me a leaker.
Fog drifts with the air currents.
This DNA could drift with the air and end up on somebody in the vicinity, but actually not involved or even have any knowledge of the crime. They would be falsely accused, which is one of the reasons people do not want their personal information stored in some database.
It's weird too because when it comes to all sorts of other counterfeit shit, I wouldn't have the first clue how. Not to belittle myself of course.