Digitized DNA is a growing trend within society that comes with it’s own set of concerns whether in a cyber or ethical viewpoint

Take Away

DNA testing services such as 23andMe have gained a lot of attention over the years and are some of the biggest forms of digitizing DNA. Although, there is medical research that has also been working with digitizing DNA that the public is not fully aware of. There was a study done by the University of Washington that allowed them to input a malicious code into a strand of DNA so when the DNA is inputted into a medical system it was able to execute an attack. On the other hand, medical research can be done with stored DNA to help cure illnesses, or study new illnesses that arise to help the human race be better equipped. While digitizing DNA can lead to great medical findings and improvements it can also be a double edge sword with the amount of security and ethical concerns that come along with it.

DNA is the most sensitive Personal Identifying Information because it is not something that can be changed. If your digitized DNA was involved in a data breach or leak it is something the attackers will have forever because it is not like a credit card where you can request a new one and cancel the old. Digitized DNA can also lead to discrimination in the hiring process because why would companies need to take the time to interview applicants when they can just run the DNA to see if it matches the ‘type’ of person they are looking for. Digitizing DNA would need to have a lot of privacy and security controls implemented to ensure that the data is protected.