BioCybersecurity lies at the intersection of biosecurity and cybersecurity issues. Biosecurity focuses on mitigating risks related to the misuse of life science, whereas cybersecurity focuses on protecting information in information technology systems (Greenbaum, 2021). BioCybersecurity focuses on reducing vulnerabilities and the risks of the misuse of life science, potentially harming civilization as a result of biology becoming digitized, such as DNA testing. Ethics play a vital role in BioCybersecurity as we witness technological advances, especially in the realm of life science. Possible ethical considerations related to BioCybersecurity are privacy, transparency of use, and oversight of dual-use research technology. Privacy is the most common cyber risk and should be considered to be one as well related to BioCybersecurity. A privacy breach related to biology, for example, someone’s DNA, jeopardizes an individual’s identity. An information security program should be in place to ensure privacy protection and prevent a data breach from unauthorized individuals. Transparency is an ethical consideration to be considered related to BioCybersecurity due to the ethical duty scientists should have when using an individual’s biological data. Scientists ethically should inform and receive consent from an individual whose data is collected, used, and potentially shared with during research. Dual-use technology within life science is the dilemma of producing and publishing research with the goal of improving public health, but such data in the hands of a terrorist group or individual could be used as a bioweapon (National Research Council, 2007). With the increase of productivity merging biology and technology together, findings from research using software programs and tools heighten the risk of biological threats, creating a dual-research of concern. Understanding and overseeing dual-use research technology can mitigate this concern and prevent individual biological data from being used for harm.

References:

Greenbaum, D. (2021). Cyberbiosecurity: An emerging field that has ethical implications for clinical neuroscience. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 30(4), 662–668. https://doi.org/10.1017/s096318012100013x

National Research Council (US) Committee on a New Government-University Partnership for Science and Security. (2007). Science and security in a post 9/11 world a report based on regional discussions between the science and security communities. National Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11496/