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All right, we spent a lot of time and
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energy protecting our digital lives,
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right? We've got passwords, two-factor
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authentication, the whole deal. But what
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if the code being hacked wasn't on your
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laptop? What if it was inside your own
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cells? Today, we're going to dive into a
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pretty alarming new frontier of cyber
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crime. How our DNA, the most personal
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data we have, is becoming a prime
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target. Think about this for a second.
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The very same technology that could one
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day cure cancer or Alzheimer's, could in
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the wrong hands be hijacked. We're
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talking about a world where your genetic
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blueprint could be used to spy on you,
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to control you, or frankly way worse.
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And this isn't some far-off sci-fi
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fantasy anymore. It's becoming a very
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real threat. So, that's really the core
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of what we're talking about today. It's
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this incredible tension in modern
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science. Our genetic code is this
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revolutionary tool for medicine, but at
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the same time, it's also a deep,
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profound, and pretty much permanent
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vulnerability. So, to make sure we're
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all on the same page, what is genomic
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data? Well, just think of it as the
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source code for a living thing. It's the
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fundamental instruction manual for,
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well, for you. It's the blueprint that
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lays out your health, your physical
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traits, your family connections,
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everything. It is without a doubt the
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most personal data that exists. Now, you
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might be thinking, "Okay, but how is
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this different from my credit card
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number getting stolen?" Well, it's a
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whole different ballgame. For starters,
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if your DNA data gets leaked, you can't
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just call a hotline and get a new
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genome. It's with you for life. It's
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immutable. It also reveals intimate
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details not just about you, but about
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all of your relatives. And its value
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just keeps growing as science learns
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more about how to read it. And if you're
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thinking this is all theoretical, think
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again. Look at this number. Almost 7
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million. That's how many people had
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their data compromised in the recent 23
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and me breach. That's not a
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hypothetical. That really happened. And
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here's the really scary part. The whole
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thing started with just 14,000 accounts
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being hacked. But because of the DNA
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relatives feature, that small breach
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cascaded. It exposed the data of 5.5
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million other people connected to them.
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On top of that, another 1.4 million
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users had their health reports scraped,
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and this stolen data was immediately
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weaponized with the hackers creating
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so-called hit lists to target people
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from specific ethnic backgrounds. So,
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how on earth is something like that even
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possible? Well, it turns out there are
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some surprisingly clever ways that
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attackers can get at this information.
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Ways that go way beyond just guessing
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your password. For years, the main
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defense was something called
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deidentification. The idea was simple.
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Just strip your name and social security
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number off the data and it's anonymous.
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Right? Wrong. It turns out that a
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combination of just three little pieces
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of info, your birthday, your gender, and
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your zip code, is enough to uniquely
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identify 87% of the entire US
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population. That anonymous data isn't
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nearly as anonymous as we thought. So,
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how do they actually do it? Let's walk
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through one of the attack methods.
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First, the attacker gets their hands on
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a supposedly anonymous set of DNA data.
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Then, they go find another data set, one
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that's public and has names attached,
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like public health records. Using what
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we know about the links between genes
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and diseases, they can infer certain
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traits from the anonymous DNA. And then
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they use those traits like a key to find
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a match in the public record, linking
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that anonymous DNA right back to a
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specific person's name. Okay, so that's
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all about hacking data. But let's take
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it a step further into a truly
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mind-bending place. We all know you can
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hack a computer with code, but could you
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hack a computer with actual physical
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DNA? And the answer, incredibly, is yes.
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Researchers at the University of
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Washington actually did it. They
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successfully encoded a piece of computer
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malware into a synthetic strand of DNA.
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Then when they put that DNA into a
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standard gene sequencing machine, the
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machine read the DNA, the malicious code
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executed, and bam, the researchers had
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remote control of the computer. Now, to
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be fair, this is not easy. You can't
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just type malicious code into a word doc
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using the letters A, C, T, and G. You
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have to remember that DNA is a physical
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molecule and it has to follow the rules
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of chemistry and biology. The code has
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to be stable and you have to design it
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carefully so the strand doesn't
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literally fold up on itself and break
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the message. It is a massive
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bioengineering puzzle, but as we've
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seen, it's a solvable one. These kinds
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of individual attacks are really just
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one piece of a much much larger puzzle.
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To really understand the full scope of
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the threat, we have to zoom out and look
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at how our bodies themselves are
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becoming part of the network. And that
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brings us to this idea, the internet of
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bodies or IoB. You've heard of the
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internet of things, connecting our smart
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speakers and refrigerators. Well, the
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IoB is the next step. It's a network of
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devices that you can wear, implant, or
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even swallow. All connected to the
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internet and all exchanging data about
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your body. Just look at this. It looks
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like a futuristic tattoo, but it's
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actually a paper thin electronic circuit
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that can fuse right onto your skin. This
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is where things are headed. We're moving
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away from technology being just a tool
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we hold in our hands and toward it
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becoming a literal extension of our own
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bodies. You can kind of think of the IOB
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happening in three waves. The first
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generation is already here. It's your
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smartwatch, your fitness tracker. The
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second generation is internal things
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like smart pacemakers and digital pills
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that send signals from inside you. But
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it's the third generation where things
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get really wild. tech that's fully
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embedded, fused with your body, creating
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a real-time data link like a brain
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computer interface. And once our biology
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isworked like this, the stakes just
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skyrocket. We're not just talking about
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personal privacy anymore. We're talking
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about national security. Imagine
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bioweapons engineered to target people
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with a specific genetic marker or
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industrial espionage that steals the
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genomic data for a nation's most
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valuable crops. You could even have
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attacks on the food supply. This is the
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Okay, that's a lot of doom and gloom.
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But the good news is as these threats
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are emerging, a whole new field of
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defense is rising up to meet them. It's
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time to talk about building a firewall
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This new discipline has a name, cyber
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biocurity. It's basically the place
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where cyber security, physical security,
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and the life sciences all crash into
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each other. It's all about figuring out
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how to protect everything from the
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machines in a lab to our actual genetic
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code from all these new digital threats.
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So, where are we most vulnerable right
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now? Well, the National Institute of
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Standards and Technology, NIST, has
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already pointed out some major gaps.
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First, there's a lack of clear security
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rules for the DNA sequencing machines
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themselves. Second, our tech is behind.
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Our security scanners aren't really
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built to handle the software that modern
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labs use. And finally, there's a huge
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policy gap. Our laws mostly treat DNA as
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a privacy issue, not as the critical
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piece of national security
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infrastructure it's become. So, what's a
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concrete solution look like? Well, one
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promising idea is what's called a zero
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trust architecture. Think of it like a
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bouncer at an exclusive club for a DNA
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sequencer. The bouncer has a very, very
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strict guest list. Only pre-approved,
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absolutely essential connections get in.
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Everything else is blocked at the door.
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it dramatically shrinks the opportunity
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for an attack. When you really step back
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and look at it, this isn't just a
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technical problem to be solved. How we
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choose to protect our biological data is
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going to be one of the defining
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challenges for the future of our society
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and maybe even for what it means to be
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human. And hey, it's not going
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unnoticed. Just look at this graph. The
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amount of research being published on
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this exact topic, the cyber risks of
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synthetic biology, has just exploded in
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the last few years. This isn't a niche
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concern for a few paranoids anymore. The
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entire scientific community is waking up
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to this new reality. And all this leaves
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us with one final pretty provocative
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thought to chew on. If our biological
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data becomes the most important thing
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about us, could it create a new kind of
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social class system? A world where
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you're judged not by your wealth or your
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background, but by the code that's
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written into your very cells. What do
