As we advance in the fields of science and technology, numerous benefits and positive outcomes have emerged. In the past, thousands of lives were lost due to some untreatable diseases that could have been prevented with effective vaccinations, medicines or treatment. Undoubtedly, advancement in medical science has undeniably improved our quality of life. In the same context, I believe that CRISPR gene editing should be ethically considered as it holds the potential for transformative benefits in medicine and beyond. According to NIH (National Institute of Health), gene editing technologies are used to understand basic gene functions and to create human disease models. In addition, they can also be used for future treatment of untreated diseases such as cancers, genetic disorders, HIV/AIDS etc. as they have great therapeutic potential for the treatment. All these processes clearly lead to the digitization of DNA. Although digitizing DNA has been proven beneficial in the medical science and criminology, it also holds significant risks and challenges in the field of cybersecurity. Surprisingly, malicious programs can be coded into the strand of DNA that can infect the computer that reads it. This is a serious threat to the system and organizations.
Advancements in science are inevitable and should be embraced. That being said, security of technologies containing sensitive information, such as human DNA, must be prioritized above all. In conclusion, implementation of effective cyber security measures and tools are crucially important to defend against cyber attacks.
Sources:
Malicious Code Written into DNA Infects the Computer that Reads itLinks to an external site.
Hacking Humans: Protecting Our DNA from CybercriminalsLinks to an external site.
