Security News > 2020 > December > Theoretical Attack on Synthetic DNA Orders Highlights Need for Better Cyber-Biosecurity
Threat actors could target DNA researchers with malware in an effort to modify synthetic DNA orders and create pathogens or toxins, researchers warn.
In a newly published article in Nature, a group of academic researchers from Israel's Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev detail a cyberattack that exploits gaps within the security of the DNA procurement process for malicious purposes.
Aimed at underlining the need for convergence between cybersecurity and biosecurity, the attack presumes that an attacker is able to compromise the computer of a researcher with an academic institution and alter orders placed with a DNA synthesis company.
Because the software editors and file formats currently used when ordering synthetic DNA do not ensure the electronic integrity of orders, the attacker could replace either parts of or all of the researcher's order with malicious sequences.
By using DNA obfuscation, similar to the obfuscation methods employed by cyber-actors for their malicious code, the attacker ensures that the pathogenic DNA is camouflaged.