{"id":293,"date":"2026-04-29T15:55:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/?p=293"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:55:27","slug":"dna-infects-computers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/2026\/04\/29\/dna-infects-computers\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA infects computers"},"content":{"rendered":"There are a few vulnerabilities that were discovered. The main one is the buffer size. Since there is a fixed-sized buffer for converting ASCII, As, Ts, Gs, and Cs to bits. That makes it an easy target for buffer overflow.<br \/><br \/>They said that it would be smart to run the applications in isolation using either Virtual Machines or containers. Virtual machines run on an isolated computer. They are used to test things out and practice on, since if you mess something up in there, it doesn\u2019t affect the actual computer. The reason you could run the application in a Virtual Machine is so that the virus could get trapped inside the machine and can be let out. The containers are very similar to Virtual Machines, but the containers share the same kernel as the host. They can be used in the same way by trapping the virus in an isolated area that cant effect other parts of the computer.<br \/><br \/>I think treating all the biological data as an untrusted input can bring new ethical and security implications. It is a good idea since early in the article they talked about how if someone could have DNA that is harmful it could become a virus and potentially affect other people. With the new biotech advancements, we need to keep an eye on both cybersecurity and scientific progress. This could open up new risks for people to get into systems, so we need to adapt our cybersecurity to be ready to handle any problem when it happens.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are a few vulnerabilities that were discovered. The main one is the buffer size. Since there is a fixed-sized buffer for converting ASCII, As, Ts, Gs, and Cs to bits. That makes it an easy target for buffer overflow. They said that it would be smart to run the applications in isolation using either&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/2026\/04\/29\/dna-infects-computers\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":32009,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":294,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/connerdewitt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}