How technology makes us vulnerable

Full Article at http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/29/opinion/goodman-ted-crime/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

By Marc Goodman

The future of science and technology sounds so promising. Unprecedented advances in computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, genetics, neuroscience and biotechnology hold the potential to radically transform our world for the better and create mass abundance for all.

I sincerely want to believe in this techno-utopian vision of things to come, but my work as a police officer and global security strategist working in more than 70 countries around the world has taught me that there is a darker side to these emerging technologies.

The criminal underground is highly innovative and often acts as an early adopter of emerging technologies.

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Advances in the life sciences means it is now possible to design DNA on a computer screen and send the DNA code to a “bio printer” for assembly. Our ability to reprogram DNA itself will undoubtedly lead to great advances in medicine, but the danger is that these same techniques can be used to modify viruses, like H5N1 influenza, to become more and more lethal, potentially affecting millions around the globe. To hackers, DNA is just another operating system waiting to be hacked.

We are at the dawn of an exponentially advancing technological arms race between people who are using technology for good and those who are using it for ill.

Full Article at http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/29/opinion/goodman-ted-crime/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7