Computer programs can now be targeted by installing malware into genes.A team of researchers has hacked the software with DNA, claiming that they have managed to gain control of a computer by using malware installed in a genetic molecule.
This biological malware was developed by scientists at the University of Washington Seattle, and is called “the world’s first DNA-hacking computer hacking system.”
For this hack a team led by Tadayoshi Kohno and Luis Ceze encoded malicious software in DNA purchased online. He then passed the DNA to a sequencing machine, and then sent it to another computer for processing, which the researchers tried to capture.
Researchers warn that hackers may someday try to infiltrate a university’s computers, steal information from police forensic labs, or infect scientists’ genome files with the help of fake blood or saliva samples.
There is not much risk of malware spreading through DNA at this time. Researchers admit that they had increased their chances of success by disabling security features and leaving a bioinformatics program open. MyHeritage.com a genealogy (genealogy) website chief scientific officer, Gina expert and programmer Kayani ayrlk (Yaniv Erlich) says that scientists experience this time can not be put into practice.
In the past, Kohno also hacked into a car’s port and attempted to seize it remotely by attacking through Bluetooth connections.
The malware, which uses DNA, will be presented to the Usenix Security Symposium held in Vancouver . “We try to predict attacks on emerging technologies, so they can be traced in advance,” says Peter Ney , a student at Cohen’s Security and Privacy Research Lab .
In order to create malware, the team of researchers turned a computer’s command into 176 DNA characters A, G, C and T. After buying the DNA for $ 89, they put it into a sequencing machine, which after reading the letters of the gene, stored them in the form of 0’s and 1’s.
Urlakh says he has taken advantage of the “spillover”, in which data that goes beyond the storage buffer is interpreted as a computer command. This command contacted a server that was controlled by Cohen’s team, and the team then managed to gain control of the computer in his lab, which was used for DNA file analysis. Was being used.
Scientists are cautious about bioterrorists in companies that make strands of synthetic DNA. Researchers say that in the future they will also need to monitor the hacking of computers with the help of DNA.
The team at the University of Washington also warns that genetic data is more readily available on the Internet and apps, making it easier for hackers to target it on a regular basis.
UK’s Sanger Institute (Sanger Institute) in bayyuanfarmytks expert James Bone Field (James Bonfield) says that sometimes led to organize the DNA data is not maintained scientific programs to interpret, which Makes it much easier to target them. Bonfield says he was the author of a program targeted by researchers at the University of Washington. They point out that the program, called fqzcomp, was created for a contest, and according to their estimates it was never used.
