People Against Cloning

The Nightmare Future of Hacking

Is it the fault of security companies you ask? No, it isn’t. They've locked all the doors and windows and posted guards in the yard 24/7. It’s just that no one expected the bastards to tunnel in under the floor or to hack through your own DNA.

The future of hacking, like the future of technology, is always squirming and breeding and morphing just beyond the normal person’s line of sight. Thus, we don’t generally see a new threat rising until the fully-grown beast charges.

Take, for example, biohacking. Bill Gates recently told Wired magazine that if he were a teenager today, he would be hacking biology. Hacking the software of life (DNA) is a prime example of why hacking endures even while computer code has become mere child’s play, he said. The challenge of hacking, controlling and ultimately mastering opportunities once thought beyond the purview of man will always lay beckoning.

Say bio ... what?

Biohacking. At the moment, it's mostly taking place in garages and at kitchen sinks. Although the Holy Grail is to create life (of the unnatural variety) from scratch, these synthetic biologists are really attempting to mimic DNA code in other types of engineering including mechanical, electrical, chemical and software.

Their goals range from enslaving micro-organisms to constructing genetic machines. No doubt some of this activity will be beneficial to mankind as it emerges much like the PC revolution arose from garages. But equally without doubt, much of the fruit of these labors will be the poison used to hack and attack corporations, governments and individuals. There will also be an increase in bioterrorism and genetic malware of both the physical and virtual varieties.

“Newer biometric authentication systems will replace passwords, quite possibly with a mix of ocular and filial credentials,” said Kurt Baumgartner, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab. “Whatever the credential replacement is, we will see cyber criminals respond with devices that parallel ATM skimmers of today.

Consumer views on cloned products breed different results, Kansas ...

MANHATTAN -- Not all consumers share the same attitudes toward animal cloning, but the latest research from Sean Fox, Kansas State University professor of agricultural economics, shows that Americans may be more accepting of consuming cloned animal products than Europeans.

Much of Fox's research focuses on consumer attitudes toward food safety. He worked with Shonda Anderson, a recent master's graduate in agricultural economics, Durango, Colo., to recently explore consumer attitudes on cloned animals.

"We were interested in finding out how different groups of consumers react to the possibility of consuming products that were derived from cloned animals," Fox said. "We were also interested in how those reactions differed between countries, particularly in the United States and Europe."

Fox and Anderson surveyed Kansas State undergraduates in agriculture, English and sociology classes. They also surveyed agriculture undergraduates at University College Dublin in Ireland and Ecole Superieure d'Agriculture in Purpan, France. The survey asked participants about their likelihood of buying and eating meat and other products from cloned animals.

Results showed differences on both an international and local level, most significant being that Americans were more accepting of cloned products than Europeans.

Other findings include:

Students in Ireland and France were less likely to consume cloned products than Kansas State students. At Kansas State, sociology and English students were less likely to consume cloned products than the agriculture students. Participants were more likely to consume cloned products after learning that both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Food Safety Authority had stated that cloned animal products pose no safety risk.

More of the European students were concerned about cloning from an ethical and moral perspective, while the American students cited food safety concerns. The strength of opposition to cloning was much stronger for those who morally opposed cloning than for those who opposed it for food safety concerns, Fox said.

The survey also found that women were less likely to purchase cloned products, and people familiar with science were more accepting of cloned products.

"It will be interesting to see how big an impact the messages of groups campaigning for or advocating against the concept of cloning will have on consumers, versus how big an impact that scientific information from a university like Kansas State will have," Fox said. "Or, if people have access to both messages, which they choose to believe.

The cloning sourcebook

The future is now, America confronts the new genetics

Complete idiot's guide to understanding cloning

Morality in a technological world, knowledge as duty

Cloning, for and against