Your Smart Phone is Protected from Cyber-Hackers. What About You?
A few months ago, the U.S. Treasury was hacked by the Chinese.
The story's been lost in the flood of news coming at us every hour of every day. But in December 2024, state-sponsored Chinese hacker group Salt Typhoon gained access to sensitive data in the U.S. Treasury. Following the attack, the FCC, the FBI, and the CISA (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) all issued new rules to address the threat. This was followed by Congressional action and new directions from the Department of Justice. The story may be forgotten but the event was taken very seriously. Cybersecurity is a national priority. Any vulnerability in our digital infrastructure is a potential way enemies could bring our nation to a screeching halt.
But there is an emerging cyber-threat that isn't getting the same attention. And it's potentially much more dangerous.
In March, a study was published analyzing Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) of human DNA. The goal of the study was not to dig into the benefits -- these are well known (and pretty amazing). NGS is behind advanced disease detection and treatments customized to individual genetic profiles, among many other advances. But the March '25 study was concerned with a potential danger that's largely unaddressed: bio hacking.
Turns out, the first stage in the NGS workflow involves turning DNA samples into digital files. And once information is digital, it's vulnerable to bad actors who know computer code.
The paper -- titled "Cyber-Biosecurity Challenges in Next-Generation Sequencing: A Comprehensive Analysis of Emerging Threat Vectors" -- identifies security vulnerabilities at every stage of the NGS process. Scientists make an urgent plea to patch up these holes. As it stands, bio-hackers have multiple ways to hack our DNA, which could lead to privacy violations, ethical concerns, and even new methods of bioterrorism.
It's not far-fetched. The rapid advances in gene editing mean our labs and universities store a growing database of genomic information at unprecedented scale. Detailed genetic makeups of organisms, including pathogens, has never been easier to obtain. Especially if you have the resources of a state-sponsored hacker group.
The paper notes that terrorists without knowledge in biotechnology can utilize AI tools to design and implement biological attacks. A malicious actor who obtains the genomic sequence of a highly virulent pathogen could leverage something as widely available as Chat GPT to identify specific genes or regions responsible for the pathogen's transmissibility, or its resistance to existing treatments. Hackers have all the keys needed to release a deadly pandemic on the world.
Even more devious, the study contemplates "synthetic DNA-based malware", a security-threat straight out of a William Gibson novel. In this hypothetical, hackers manipulate DNA sequences to break your immune system and open the door for viruses to invade.
The first issue these Scientists are looking to address? Fragmentation in the bio tech world. According to Doctor Nasreen Anjum, one of the study's authors, "vital collaboration between disciplines is lacking. Computer scientists, bioinformaticians, biotechnologist, and security professionals rarely work together." They argue current solutions are too narrowly focused -- on "microbial sequencing" or "system architecture" -- when they should address the entire NGS process.
Bottom line, there are blind spots in NGS, holes hackers can leverage. To give the world a starting point towards a solution, the paper offers the first comprehensive list of all known cyber threats in the NGS process. Turns out, this is a terrifying list. We're not talking about a few key ways hackers might attack our DNA. The paper has no less than 40 cyber threats that need addressing. From DNA-encoded malware attacks to "multiplexed DNA injection attacks" to genome tampering to "stealth corruption attacks" (a highly advanced malware that introduces deadly errors in research outcomes), the sheer volume of ways hackers could launch a cyber-bio-attack is horrific.
It's hard to imagine we ever get this buttoned up before a foreign enemy turns our own genomic data into a bio weapon.
The next time your doctor says you have a virus, let's hope it's not from a computer.
