Biohackers Encoded Malware in a Strand of DNA

[Jubal]

When biologists synthesize DNA, they take pains not to create or spread a dangerous stretch of genetic code that could be used to create a toxin or, worse, an infectious disease. But one group of biohackers has demonstrated how DNA can carry a less expected threat—one designed to infect not humans nor animals but computers.

In new research they plan to present at the USENIX Security conference on Thursday, a group of researchers from the University of Washington has shown for the first time that it’s possible to encode malicious software into physical strands of DNA, so that when a gene sequencer analyzes it the resulting data becomes a program that corrupts gene-sequencing software and takes control of the underlying computer. While that attack is far from practical for any real spy or criminal, it's one the researchers argue could become more likely over time, as DNA sequencing becomes more commonplace, powerful, and performed by third-party services on sensitive computer systems. And, perhaps more to the point for the cybersecurity community, it also represents an impressive, sci-fi feat of sheer hacker ingenuity.

Full Story:
https://www.wired.com/story/malware-dna-hack


This is pretty interesting and neatly sci-fi!

[comrade_general]

We're all doomed.

[Jubal]

Well, we may as well be doomed in a really cool techie way

[Tusky]

It's quite clever but I think that there are more effective ways of hacking machines than via DNA. Also I think that I'm more worried about DNA meddling, as that article says, biologists have to be careful not to:

spread a dangerous stretch of genetic code that could be used to create a toxin or, worse, an infectious disease

But there is plenty of fiction where the plot concerns nefarious or clumsy types that end up doing the opposite.

It's a very interesting article though, and the storing and transmission of information using DNA is a very interesting concept.

[Jubal]

Yeah, I shared this less as a "we're all gonna die" more as a "cool sci-fi concept that we can now treat as plausible when writing hard sci-fi stories".

[comrade_general]

It's too late, you've started a worldwide panic.