Course Objectives:

This course is designed to give students of all backgrounds and experiences an introductory-level discussion of the new Biocybersecurity (BCS) field. This writing-intensive, discussion-based course is designed to encourage students to think about how the merging of cybersecurity and the growing bioeconomy may affect vital infrastructure, social conventions, and other aspects of society and industry. 

Class discussions include novel and real-world threats to medical and genealogical records, synthetic biology threats, academic and industrial biotechnology, agriculture, national security, and recent bio-digital lab-demonstrated attacks. 

This writing-intensive course utilizes a semester-spanning capstone project to prepare students to address potential security threats. Core to this course is understanding Biocybersecurity’s untapped potential and how to start thinking of strategies to confront it.