Cyberbiosecurity

Cyberbiosecurity is an emerging field at the intersection of cybersecurity and biosecurity.^[1][2][3] The objective of cyberbiosecurity has been described as addressing "the potential for or actual malicious destruction, misuse, or exploitation of valuable information, processes, and material at the interface of the life sciences and digital worlds".^[2] Cyberbiosecurity is part of a system of measures that collectively aim to "Safeguard the Bioeconomy", an objective described by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine of the United States.^[4][5]

Cyberbiosecurity threats

Cyberbiosecurity threats are becoming increasingly important as technological progress continues to accelerate in fields such as artificial intelligence, automation, and synthetic biology.^[2][6] Moreover, not only is the pace of progress in these fields accelerating, but they are also becoming increasingly integrated, leading to a growing overlap that is generating new security vulnerabilities.^[4][7] Many of the potential risks from future progress in bioengineering that were identified by researchers fall within the bounds of cyberbiosecurity, for instance, the use of cyberattacks to exploit bio-automation for malicious purposes.^[8] Against this background, cyberbiosecurity measures are becoming increasingly important to prevent or protect against the misuse of innovations in the life sciences, including to reduce the proliferation risk of biological weapons. In recent years, there has been a growing amount of research characterizing cyberbiosecurity threats, including by conducting surveys on cyberbiosecurity risk perceptions in the biotech sector,^[9] and offering first recommendations for measures to prevent or protect against these threats.^{[10][11][12][13]} Researchers have observed that in the future it may be critical to consider the risk of computer systems being exploited by adversarially created DNA.^[14][15]

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, some research has focused on the cyberbiosecurity implications of the pandemic.^[16]

References

1. Peccoud, Jean; Gallegos, Jenna E.; Murch, Randall; Buchholz, Wallace G.; Raman, Sanjay (2018). "Cyberbiosecurity: From Naive Trust to Risk Awareness". Trends in Biotechnology. 36 (1): 4–7. doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.10.012. ISSN 1879-3096. PMID 29224719.
2. Richardson, Lauren C.; Connell, Nancy D.; Lewis, Stephen M.; Pauwels, Eleonore; Murch, Randy S. (2019-06-06). "Cyberbiosecurity: A Call for Cooperation in a New Threat Landscape". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 7: 99. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00099. ISSN 2296-4185. PMC 6562220. PMID 31245363.
3. "Mapping the Cyberbiosecurity Enterprise | Frontiers Research Topic". www.frontiersin.org. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
4. Murch, Randall S.; So, William K.; Buchholz, Wallace G.; Raman, Sanjay; Peccoud, Jean (2018-04-05). "Cyberbiosecurity: An Emerging New Discipline to Help Safeguard the Bioeconomy". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 6: 39. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2018.00039. ISSN 2296-4185. PMC 5895716. PMID 29675411.
5. Safeguarding the Bioeconomy. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020-01-14. doi:10.17226/25525. ISBN 978-0-309-49567-7. PMID 32352690. S2CID 214395865.
6. George, Asha M. (2019). "The National Security Implications of Cyberbiosecurity". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 7: 51. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00051. ISSN 2296-4185. PMC 6438857. PMID 30968020.
7. Schabacker, Daniel S.; Levy, Leslie-Anne; Evans, Nate J.; Fowler, Jennifer M.; Dickey, Ellen A. (2019). "Assessing Cyberbiosecurity Vulnerabilities and Infrastructure Resilience". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 7: 61. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00061. ISSN 2296-4185. PMC 6455068. PMID 31001526.
8. Wintle, Bonnie C; Boehm, Christian R; Rhodes, Catherine; Molloy, Jennifer C; Millett, Piers; Adam, Laura; Breitling, Rainer; Carlson, Rob; Casagrande, Rocco; Dando, Malcolm; Doubleday, Robert (2017). "A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering". eLife. 6. doi:10.7554/eLife.30247. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 5685469. PMID 29132504.
9. Millett, Kathryn; Dos Santos, Eduardo; Millett, Piers D. (2019). "Cyber-Biosecurity Risk Perceptions in the Biotech Sector". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 7: 136. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00136. ISSN 2296-4185. PMC 6593240. PMID 31275929.
10. Reed, J. Craig; Dunaway, Nicolas (2019). "Cyberbiosecurity Implications for the Laboratory of the Future". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 7: 182. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00182. ISSN 2296-4185. PMC 6712584. PMID 31497596.
11. Mantle, Jennifer L.; Rammohan, Jayan; Romantseva, Eugenia F.; Welch, Joel T.; Kauffman, Leah R.; McCarthy, Jim; Schiel, John; Baker, Jeffrey C.; Strychalski, Elizabeth A.; Rogers, Kelley C.; Lee, Kelvin H. (2019). "Cyberbiosecurity for Biopharmaceutical Products". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 7: 116. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00116. ISSN 2296-4185. PMC 6554447. PMID 31214582.
12. Richardson, Lauren C.; Lewis, Stephen M.; Burnette, Ryan N. (2019). "Building Capacity for Cyberbiosecurity Training". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 7: 112. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00112. ISSN 2296-4185. PMC 6606988. PMID 31297367.
13. Walsh, Patrick et al. (2021). Threats, Risks and Vulnerabilities At the Intersection of Digital, Bio and Health.
14. Greenberg, Andy. "Biohackers Encoded Malware in a Strand of DNA". Wired.
15. Computer Security, Privacy, and DNA Sequencing: Compromising Computers with Synthesized DNA, Privacy Leaks, and More. USENIX Association. 2017. pp. 765–779. ISBN 9781931971409.
16. Mueller, Siguna (2020-09-25). "Facing the 2020 Pandemic: What does Cyberbiosecurity want us to know to safeguard the future?". Biosafety and Health. 3 (1): 11–21. doi:10.1016/j.bsheal.2020.09.007. ISSN 2590-0536. PMC 7518802. PMID 33015604.