Showing posts with label Bio Warfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bio Warfare. Show all posts

January 12, 2020

EMP Attack-->Danger, Danger, Danger

Saw the Movie E.M.P. over the weekend.  

Everyone needs to see this!

The explosion of a nuke(s) in the atmosphere over the country causes an electromagnetic pulse that fries all our electronics. 

Nothing would work!!!

Think cyberattack on steroids with everything out of commission and basically little to no chance of recovery. 

Prognosis is for mass riots, starvation, and illness that wipes out most of the population. 

Easy then for the enemy to swoop in and conquer the country with no resistance and the basic infrastructure still intact for them to build on. 

Just having mutually assured destruction is not enough!

We need to genuinely be able to counter these threats and not just say: "You'll die if we die." 

How stupid and immature is that thinking?

There are more than a share of radical nuts out there who don't care if they die as long as they take us down.

These are the threats we need to pay attention to before...before...before...it's too late. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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November 9, 2012

Biowarfare: A Fight At The Molecular Level

There is a fascinating article in The Atlantic (November 2012) on an emerging bioweapons storm that is brewing that could be used in a decapitation strike to harm anyone, even the President of the United States. 

Advances in genetic engineering, biotechnology, and synthetic biology (Synbio) has been seen from decoding human DNA to the development of "magic bullets", personalized viral therapies that can target and destroy cancer cells.

However, just as most things can be used for good or evil--so too, can this biotechnology be used to target and destroy cancerous cells or perversely to attack healthy ones.

Bioweapons could be targeted to various parts of the body or brain to cause blindness, memory loss, or death itself. More subtly, it can be used to "fabricate evidence" of affairs, crimes, "cast doubt" as to birthplace or heritage, or as supposed markers for genetic diseases, and even mental disability. 

Moreover, while bioweapons of mass destruction can destroy virtually entire civilizations, personalized bioweapons can be engineered based on the manipulation of a specific person's DNA to attack that person--then just like a sniper, it becomes one shot, one (targeted) kill. 

Personalized bioweapons can be silent and deadly, difficult to detect, hard to pin on a source, and may even be confused with death by natural causes. 

And the cost is coming down...cell-culturing gear "can be had on eBay for as little as $10,000" or "cobbled together for less than $1,000."

Even non-weaponized use of this technology, can be extremely dangerous. For example, Synbio, can be used to "cut and paste" genetic code from one species to another, can be mixed from multiple species, and new creatures can be created altogether--all this potentially leading to frightening scenarios of "undesired cross-breeding with other organisms, uncontrolled proliferation, crowding out existing species, and threats to biodiversity." 

Already, "forty nations now host synbio research" and "The Beijing Genomics Institute...is the largest genomic research organization in the world."

The article speaks to various approaches to counter the personalized bioweapons threat including scientific task forces, bio-detectors, "Clean DNA" (as biological backup system), conducting biological war games, and open/crowdsourcing for solutions. 

It seems clear that the answers of how to defend against these emerging threats are not as good as the questions raised by them--and we will need to be vigilant and fast-track R&D in these areas, as we are still vulnerable. 

Further, I see some similarities between bioweapons, cyberweapons, and even legions of attack drones/droids, as all areas that are non-conventional and developing quickly and quite lethally. 

Unfortunately, we can't just put on a coat of armor and be safe from attacks at the molecular level, or from malicious code seeking to cripple our national critical infrastructure, or from robots that can stream across a battlespace attacking without fear, pain, or tiring. 

There is no simple paradigm for killing anymore and we better let our imaginations run wild, so we can figure out new ways to protect everyone--from the President and on down to us all.

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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June 23, 2012

Biosecurity--Where Every Moment Counts

A biological attack on the United States is a most frightening prospect and one that could present an existential threat to us. 

Just the very mention of bio-warfare agents such as anthrax, ebola, smallpox, bubonic plague, and others are enough to provoke sheer terror in most people. 

BioWatch is a program managed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to monitor for a biological attack.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek (21 June 2012) bio-surveillance is currently conducted in 30 metropolitan areas around the country using 600 air filters to detect pathogens, where samples are collected daily and taken to labs for analysis in what amounts to a 36 hour turnaround to determine if there is a hazard. 

A new technology made by Positive ID or Northrop Grumman collects samples four times a day and analyzes it on the spot for bateria, viruses, and toxins, and sends the results to officials by secure network in as little as two hours. 

The shorter time to detection will give more time to save lives by getting drugs and vaccines to the field sooner and prevent the spread from person to person.  

DHS wants to deploy 2,500 of these new sensors and the bio-attack alert system at a cost of approximately $5.7 billion, if Congress approves. 

If this bio-sensing system proves out functionally, then the price tag seems well worth it. 

Bioweapons like cyber-attacks can cause widespread panic as well as disruption to our everyday way of life, however a bio-attack has the added feature of making people symptomatic and infecting them with deadly and painful illnesses. 

Cyber attacks can infiltrate and take out our critical infrastructure, but biological attacks can directly destroy our physical bodies and the population itself. 

A bio-attack and a cyber-attack together could devastate us by attacking us while at the same time inhibiting our ability to deliver medication and quarantine those that are ill and so on. 

In addition to grossly improving on our cyber defensive (and offensive) capabilities, we must do everything we can to enhance our biosecurity--this mean upgrading our preparedness for bio-terrorism and bio-warfare using the latest technologies available to sniff out and identify a bio attack and alert us so we can respond timely, while we still can. 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to U.S. Department of Defense)

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