Juliette Rizkallah discusses in her Forbes article “Hacking Humans: Protecting Our DNA from Cybercriminals” the increasing threats to cybersecurity due to the digitization of human DNA via popular direct-to-consumer genetic testing services. Those services can determine ancestry or provide health information, but according to Rizkallah, the digitization of DNA is extremely risky from a privacy and security perspective. DNA is called the ultimate personally identifying information (PII) when compared to a credit card or social security number, because it is permanent and can’t be changed if it were to be stolen. Once it has been digitized, genetic information can be hacked, stolen, or sold, meaning that there is the potential for misuse on the dark web.

Rizkallah introduces cyberbiosecurity, a young field that researches where biological and digital data intersect with cyber vulnerabilities and threats. The author discusses recent breaches in DNA-testing databases, unveiling the personal data of millions of users and how scarce—yet valuable—this information is. In addition to data casualties, she raises ethical dilemmas regarding how DNA data could be used, which organizations might police against hazardous hiring based on candidates’ potential genetic traits, and heightened health risks. 

In the conclusion, the author offers consumers and corporations a strong call to action. Though genomic technologies will not stop innovating, there’s a greater need for progress and awareness regarding:

While consumers must understand how their DNA data is collected, stored, and shared, corporations can put in stronger safety measures as it relates to cybersecurity policies to protect that data and create more transparency. Rizkallah states that as society continues to embrace everything digital, protecting our DNA data protects against the ultimate identity theft.