Jason Exume
Hacking Humans
Something I realized is having DNA data stolen and digitalized is not spoken about often, and to be honest the thought hasn’t crossed my mind until reading the “Hacking Humans” article. While having your social security number, or bank info stolen is a serious and critical issue, you can have that recovered and possibly be issued a new one. On the other hand, when it comes to DNA,” it is permanent and unchangeable “(Juliette Rizkallah 2025). If this is digitalized there is little chance of coming back from that, especially if it reaches the black market and is sold. You cannot simply be issued a new DNA like you could with your Social Security number or bank info.” The digitization of our DNA means that it is held in some organizational database and the usage of it is somewhat unknown to us” (Juliette Rizkallah 2025). “The closure of a criminal cold case through the matching of a consumer DNA database with a police database is just an example of these potential usages” (Juliette Rizkallah 2025). Once digitized, DNA can be used by criminals for any purpose. While there is no way to completely police the entire internet, we can at least set plans in motion to slow down the occurrence and the likely hood of DNA being stolen. As consumers, we should seek to understand how DNA in general is secured and determine if it is safe enough to trust. We should also seek to learn if and how our personal DNA has been breached. A popular website that the public has come to use often is Ansestory.com. It is typically a website to research your background to
Determine what nationality you may be mixed with, and who you may be related to. While this is a cool thing to want to investigate. There is a risk of your data being breached here. This is a simple example of how tempting it can be to post such vital info without thinking of the potential harm it may cause. In all I believe it is best to avoid providing such info to the internet.
Sources
Hacking Humans_ Protecting Our DNA From Cybercriminals.pdf – Google Drive https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/11/29/hacking-humans-
protecting-our-dna-from-cybercriminals/?sh=31cfac3a5287
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