Malware may trick biologists into generating dangerous toxins in their labs

2020-12-01 04:30

An end-to-end cyber-biological attack, in which unwitting biologists may be tricked into generating dangerous toxins in their labs, has been discovered by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers.

Malware could easily replace a short sub-string of the DNA on a bioengineer's computer so that they unintentionally create a toxin producing sequence.

"However, outside the state, bioterrorists can buy dangerous DNA, from companies that do not screen the orders," Puzis says.

A weakness in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidance for DNA providers allows screening protocols to be circumvented using a generic obfuscation procedure which makes it difficult for the screening software to detect the toxin producing DNA. "Using this technique, our experiments revealed that that 16 out of 50 obfuscated DNA samples were not detected when screened according to the 'best-match' HHS guidelines," Puzis says.

"To address these threats, we propose an improved screening algorithm that takes into account in vivo gene editing. We hope this paper sets the stage for robust, adversary resilient DNA sequence screening and cybersecurity-hardened synthetic gene production services when biosecurity screening will be enforced by local regulations worldwide."

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