Media Watch
The waters are rising, the floods are coming. What are we doing to save ourselves?
USA Today -
At the University of California, Irvine, environmental engineering professor Brett Sanders and his team are building computer models that show both historic flooding and areas at risk because of climate change, to give residents access to as much information as is available. He hopes to make the program more widely available as they get more funding.
Researchers Predict Machine Sounds Could Potentially Pose a Threat to Biosecurity
Engineering.com -
Researchers from the University of California, Irvine and University of California, Riverside recently presented a paper at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium highlighting the potential threat of the sounds emitted by lab instruments and machines. To address rising biosecurity concerns, the group devised a machine-learning algorithm that can successfully reconstruct what a lab instrument was used for through sound recordings.
A new world for hackers: Acoustic side-channel attack
Homeland Security News Wire -
Researchers from the University of California, Irvine and the University of California, Riverside have uncovered the possibility of an acoustic side-channel attack on the DNA synthesis process, a vulnerability that could present a serious risk to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. … “A few years ago, we published a study on a similar method for stealing blueprints of objects being fabricated in 3-D printers, but this attack on DNA synthesizers is potentially much more serious,” said Mohammad Al Faruque, UC Irvine associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
Machines Whisper Our Secrets
STRN -
Brisk and UC Irvine electrical and computer engineering professor Mohammad Abdullah Al Faruqueand his doctoral student Sina Faezi; along with John C. Chaput, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at UC Irvine; and William Grover, a bioengineering professor at UC Riverside, set microphones similar to those in a smartphone in several spots near a DNA synthesizer in Chaput’s lab.
How to Steal DNA With Sound
IEEE Spectrum -
Engineers at the University of California say they have demonstrated how easy it would be to snoop on biotech companies making synthetic DNA…. The researchers demonstrated their spying technique on the Applied Biosystems 3400 DNA Synthesizer, a widely used older model…. “Acoustics for this particular machine was the problem,” says Mohammad Al Faruque, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of California Irvine whose team developed the algorithms. But any type of emission from a machine can potentially be analyzed, he says.
Is the Next Hacking Frontier Being Developed in California?
The New York Times -
The idea for the project, said Mohammad Al Faruque, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at U.C.I., stemmed from his previous work stealing blueprints for things printed by a 3-D printer. “If you can eavesdrop on a machine, you can understand what it’s making,” he said. “And with the 3-D printer, we demonstrated that.”
Lab instruments in possible data leak
Health Management -
A new study warns lab instruments used in biomedical research, such as DNA synthesising machines, may be leaking sensitive information through some kind of noise or sound that they make. The study by University of California researchers serves to highlight new security risks created by the cyber-physical nature of biotechnology workflows. The researchers found that speakers similar to smartphone speakers had the capability to determine what a DNA synthesiser was producing from the sounds its components made as it went through its manufacturing routine.
Hackers Listen in on What Synthetic DNA Machines are Printing
WIRED -
“Over the last century, whether it was from computers or mobile phones, stealing data was all about directly stealing zeros and ones,” says Mohammad Abdullah Al Faruque, a computer scientist at UC Irvine whose lab led the latest eavesdropping efforts.
Lab instruments may be leaking patient data, study finds
Healthcare IT News -
The new report noted the cyber-physical nature of biotechnology workflows has created new security risks, which the research community has mostly neglected. The researchers, including Philip Brisk, a UC Riverside associate professor of computer science, and UC Irvine electrical and computer engineering professor Mohammad Abdullah Al Faruque, recommend labs using DNA synthesizing machines institute security measures.
Researchers uncover possibility of acoustic side-channel attack on DNA synthesis process
News Medical Life Sciences -
"A few years ago, we published a study on a similar method for stealing blueprints of objects being fabricated in 3-D printers, but this attack on DNA synthesizers is potentially much more serious," said Mohammad Al Faruque, UCI associate professor of electrical engineering & computer science. "In the wrong hands, DNA synthesis capability could result in bioterrorists synthesizing, at will, harmful pathogens such as anthrax."