Gadi Evron, a prominent Israeli network security expert, has some questions about a future when we let software into our bionic, cybernetic bodies.
Say we really do start modifying ourself, he asked a late-night crowd here at the Chaos Computer Camp. Presumably, that means a bit of hardware, a bit of software. And as any security consultant knows, every piece of software ever written by an actual human is riddled with flaws and bugs, which translate all too easily into security flaws.
Suddenly a whole slew of problems familiar to the network security world appear. If someone finds a bug in a bionic body part, what are the ethical issues? Should it be reported widely? Just to the company producing the component? Hidden, or sold for profit?
And what about patches? Will people line up at schools for heart-implant fixes, like for today's flu shot? Will viruses distribute false patches, and infect body parts? Or an apocalyptic scenario: What if our cybernetic tools synchronized themselves with Outlook.
With wireless connections, viruses could even spread, well, through the air. What kind of intellectual
property issues could arise? Pirates, crackers, ransom-artists, virus-writers, all focused on the body instead of the laptop.
In part, Evron uses these analogies to demonstrate issues in computer security to non-
experts, for whom the idea of body-hacking might help illustrate problems.
But it's also a daunting take on strains in biology and genetics that are only barely still science fiction. A little of the computer security mindset would be a healthy thing as we enter the uncharted territory of body modification, he argues.
"Biology needs to undergo a computer science infusion," Evron said. "We need to reverse engineer genetics."
