But one group of bio-hackers has demonstrated how DNA can carry a less expected threat—one designed to infect not humans or animals but computers.
And, perhaps more to the point for the cybersecurity community, it also represents an impressive, sci-fi feat of sheer hacker ingenuity.
For now, that threat remains more of a plot point in a Michael Crichton novel than one that should concern computational biologists.
But as genetic sequencing is increasingly handled by centralized services—often run by university labs that own the expensive gene sequencing equipment—that DNA-borne malware trick becomes ever so slightly more realistic.
Especially given that the DNA samples come from outside sources, which may be difficult to properly vet.
Companies could even potentially place malicious code in the DNA of genetically modified products, as a way to protect trade secrets, the researchers suggest.
(A strand of DNA can be sequenced in either direction, but code is meant to be read in only one. »
