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Rogue Biohacking Is Not a Problem

Posted by timothy on from the baking-soda-and-castor-bean-stew dept.

Lasrick writes: Although biosecurity experts have long warned that biohackers will eventually engineer pathogens in the same way that computer enthusiasts in the 1970s developed viruses and adware, UC Berkeley's Zian Liu thinks fears about 'rogue biohackers' are overblown. He lists the five barriers that make it much more difficult to bioengineer in your garage than people think, but also suggests some important chokeholds regulators can take to prevent a would-be bioweaponeer from getting lucky.

2 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Yet one more reason by Stellian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...to colonize Mars. We probably have another 50 years of relative safety. But it's clear that the human body is a nightmare from a information security point of view: it will accept almost any rogue DNA and happily incorporate it in it's own cells and replicate it, like an Win98 autoruns any USB drive inserted. The attackers of such a system have a definite advantage, defenders cannot close the autorun functionality without dramatically re-engineer the human being. So all it takes is one mad genius with the right tools to create an unstoppable, airborne, deadly virus.

  2. Famous Last Words by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Famous Last Words....

    "Don't worry, it's unloaded..."

    "Relax, we have the right-of-way..."

    "It's okay, I'm sure this rope will hold our weight..."

    "Don't worry, rogue biohacking is not a problem..."

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...