Recently academics from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev explained how “unwitting” biologists and scientists could become victims of cyberattacks designed to take biological warfare to another level. This new form of cyberattack highlights the future consequences of digital assaults against the biological research sector.
Amid this pandemic situation when all the Biological research sectors and the scientists associated with these sectors are trying very hard to develop a vaccine to combat the COVID-19 pandemic Ben-Gurion’s team said that it is no longer the case that a threat actor needs physical access to a dangerous substance to produce or deliver it, instead, scientists could be duped into producing toxins or synthetic viruses on their behalf through targeted cyberattacks. For an unwitting scientist processing the sequence, this could mean the accidental creation of dangerous substances, including synthetic viruses or toxic material.
