Future Crimes

by Marc Goodman

  30 In another case: “How Technology May Soon ‘Read’ Your Mind,” CBS News, Jan. 4, 2009.

  31 This and other studies: IBM Research, “Mind Reading Is No Longer Science Fiction,” Dec. 19, 2011, http://​ibmresearchnews.​blogspot.​com/.

  32 Already any number: Mark Harris, “MRI Lie Detectors,” IEEE Spectrum, July 30, 2010.

  33 Their tests are bolstered: Adi Narayan, “The fMRI Brain Scan: A Better Lie Detector?,” Time, July 20, 2009.

  34 In India, a woman: Anand Giridharadas, “India’s Novel Use of Brain Scans in Courts Is Debated,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 2008; Angela Saini, “The Brain Police: Judging Murder with an MRI,” Wired UK, May 27, 2009.

  35 In 2012, researchers: Geeta Dayal, “Researchers Hack Brainwaves to Reveal PINs, Other Personal Data,” Wired, Aug. 29, 2012.

  36 Quickly, the cost: Erika Check Hayden, “Company Claims to Have Sequenced Man’s Genome Cheaply,” Nature News, Feb. 8, 2008, doi:​10.​1038/​news.​2008.​563.

  37 As a result, improvements: Mike Orcutt, “Bases to Bytes,” MIT Technology Review, April 25, 2012; Matthew Herper, “DNA Sequencing: Beating Moore’s Law Since January 2008,” Forbes, May 13, 2011.

  38 When this happens: Erika Check Hayden, “Technology: The $1,000 Genome,” Nature, March 19, 2014, 294–95, doi:​10.​1038/​507294a; Ashlee Vance, “Human Gene Mapping Price to Drop to $1,000, Illumina Says,” Bloomberg, Jan. 15, 2014.

  39 Indeed, these remarkable drops in cost: Jon Mooallem, “Do-It-Yourself Genetic Engineering,” New York Times Magazine, Feb. 14, 2010; Jack Hitt, “Guess What’s Cooking in the Garage,” Popular Science, May 31, 2012.

  40 Venter boldly predicts: Zoë Corbyn, “Craig Venter: ‘This Isn’t a Fantasy Look at the Future. We Are Doing the Future,’ ” Guardian, Oct. 12, 2013.

  41 The integration of biology: Lisa M. Krieger, “Biological Computer Created at Stanford,” San Jose Mercury News, March 29, 2013; Tim Requarth and Greg Wayne, “Tiny Biocomputers Move Closer to Reality,” Scientific American, Nov. 2, 2011; Adam Baer, “Why Living Cells Are the Future of Data Processing,” Popular Science, Nov. 5, 2012.

  42 The emerging field: Clay Dillow, “Bio-storage Scheme Turns E. coli Bacteria into Hard Drives,” Popular Science, Jan. 10, 2011.

  43 The legendary geneticist: Wyss Institute, “Writing the Book in DNA,” Aug. 16, 2012, http://​wyss.​harvard.​edu/​viewpressrelease/​93/.

  44 Not only do such storage techniques: Ibid.

  45 Indeed, a whole host: Chiropractic Resource Organization, “NIH Heads Foresee the Future,” http://​www.​chiro.​org/; Helen Thomson, “Deaf People Get Gene Tweak to Restore Natural Hearing,” New Scientist, April 23, 2014.

  46 The died-out mammoth: George M. Church, Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves (New York: Basic Books, 2012); J. Craig Venter, Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life (New York: Viking Adult, 2013).

  47 In another example: Kim-Mai Cutler, “Glowing Plant Is One of Y Combinator’s Very First Biotech Startups,” TechCrunch, Aug. 11, 2014.

  48 Her estate eventually: Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (New York: Broadway Books, 2011); Moore v. Regents of University of California (1990) 51 Cal. 3d 120 (271 Cal. Rptr. 146, 793 P.2d 479), Justia Law, accessed Sept. 12, 2014, http://​law.​justia.​com/.

  49 Why did they: A case of Moore v. Regents of the University of California. On July 9, 1990, the court ruled that a person’s discarded tissue and cells are not their property and can be commercialized.

  50 Our genetic makeup: James Randerson, “What DNA Can Tell Us,” Guardian, April 26, 2008.

  51 Some studies have also found: Ian Sample, “Male Sexual Orientation Influenced by Genes, Study Shows,” Guardian, Feb. 13, 2014; Patricia Cohen, “Genetics and Crime at Institute of Justice Conference,” New York Times, June 19, 2011.

  52 Though GINA applies: National Human Genome Research Institute, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, http://​www.​genome.​gov/; National Human Genome Research Institute, “Genetic Discrimination,” http://www.genome.gov/.

  53 Several people: Adam Cohen, “Can You Be Fired for Your Genes?,” Time, Feb. 20, 2012.

  54 Meanwhile, under Danish law: Statens Serum Institut, “The Danish Neonatal Screening Biobank,” http://​www.​ssi.​dk.

  55 And what happens: Andrew Pollack, “DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated, Scientists Show,” New York Times, Aug. 18, 2009; Dan Frumkin et al., “Authentication of Forensic DNA Samples,” Forensic Science International: Genetics 4, no. 2 (2010): 95–103, doi:​10.​1016/​j.​fsigen.​2009.​06.​009.

  56 The engineered samples: Fiona Macrae, “DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated and Planted at Crime Scenes, Scientists Warn,” Mail Online, Aug. 19, 2009.

  57 “discreet DNA samples”: Sharon Begley, “Citing Privacy Concerns, U.S. Panel Urges End to Secret DNA Testing,” Reuters, Oct. 11, 2012. 337 Organized crime has always made money: Erin Carlyle, “Billionaire Druglords,” Forbes, March 13, 2012.

  58 At the height: Bijan Stephen, “Pablo Escobar’s Hippos Are Running Wild in Colombia,” Time, June 28, 2014.

  59 Though narcos have been using: Jeremy McDermott, “Drug Lords Develop High-Yield Coca Plant,” Telegraph, Aug. 27, 2004; Goodman, “What Business Can Learn from Organized Crime.”

  60 You could just take: Marc Goodman, “A Vision for Crimes in the Future,” TED Talk, July 2012.

  61 E. coli bacteria: “Bakterien können ohne viel Aufwand Cannabis-Wirkstoff produzieren,” derStandard.​at, Aug. 17, 2010, http://derstandard.at/; Luc Henry, “Instead of Poppies, Engineering Microbes,” Discover, Sept. 9, 2014; “A New Opium Pipe,” Economist, Aug. 30, 2014.

  62 Later it was discovered: Joel O. Wertheim, “The Re-emergence of H1N1 Influenza Virus in 1977: A Cautionary Tale for Estimating Divergence Times Using Biologically Unrealistic Sampling Dates,” PLoS ONE 5, no. 6 (2010): e11184, doi:​10.​1371/​journal.​pone.​0011184.

  63 Just one year: Alison Young, “Vial of Deadly Virus Missing at Texas Bioterror Laboratory,” USA Today, March 25, 2013; “Paris Laboratory Loses Deadly SARS Virus Samples,” France24, April 16, 2014.

  64 Overseas, we know: Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, “Qaeda Trying to Harness Toxin, Ricin, for Bombs, U.S. Says,” New York Times, Aug. 12, 2011.

  65 Many other terrorist organizations: Marc Goodman, “The Bio-crime Prophecy,” Wired, May 28, 2013.

  66 To prove the point: Erika Check, “Poliovirus Advance Sparks Fears of Data Curbs,” Nature, July 18, 2002, 265–65, doi:​10.​1038/​418265a.

  67 Yet by making: Masaki Imai et al., “Experimental Adaptation of an Influenza H5 HA Confers Respiratory Droplet Transmission to a Reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 Virus in Ferrets,” Nature, May 2, 2012, doi:​10.​1038/​nature​10831; Bryan Walsh, “Should Journals Describe How Scientists Made a Killer Flu?,” Time, Dec. 21, 2011.

  68 In the end: Denise Grady and William J. Broad, “U.S. Asks Journals to Censor Articles on Bird Flu Virus,” New York Times, Dec. 20, 2011. 340 In the future: Andrew Hessel, Marc Goodman, and Steven Kotler, “Hacking the President’s DNA,” Atlantic, Oct. 24, 2013.

  69 Though one might think: Robert Booth and Julian Borger, “US Diplomats Spied on UN Leadership,” Guardian, Nov. 28, 2010; Spencer Ackerman, “U.S. Chases Foreign Leaders’ DNA, WikiLeaks Shows,” Wired, Nov. 29, 2010.

  70 The satellites, which: Marcelo Soares, “The Great Brazilian Sat-Hack Crackdown,” Wired, April 20, 2009.

  71 Perhaps an even greater risk: Ellie Zolfagharifard, “Incredible Image Shows How Earth Is Entirely Surrounded by Junk,” Mail Online, Dec. 13, 2013.

  72 In 2007, for example: William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, “China Tests Anti-satellite Weapon, Unnerving U.S.,” New York Times, Jan. 18, 2007.

  73 Such an attack: Joey Cheng, “Critical Military Satellite Systems Are Vulnerable to Hacking,” Defense Systems, April 23, 2014.

  74 In fact, ac
cording to a congressional commission: Tony Capaccio and Jeff Bliss, “Chinese Military Suspected in Hacker Attacks on U.S. Satellites,” Bloomberg, Oct. 26, 2011.

  75 According to a report: Samuel Gibbs, “International Space Station Attacked by ‘Virus Epidemics,’ ” Guardian, Nov. 12, 2013.

  76 In another incident: Ellie Zolfagharifard, “Cosmonaut Accidentally Infected the ISS with a Virus on a USB Stick,” Mail Online, Nov. 12, 2013; “Cosmonaut Carries Computer Virus Aboard International Space Station,” PBS NewsHour, Nov. 11, 2013.

  77 “It’s not a frequent occurrence”: Damien Francis, “Computer Virus Infects Orbiting Space Station,” Guardian, Aug. 27, 2008.

  78 “beyond the reach of censors”: David Meyer, “Hackers Plan Space Satellites to Combat Censorship,” BBC News, Jan. 4, 2012.

  79 The “wonder material”: “Graphene ‘Made with Kitchen Blender,’ ” BBC News, April 22, 2014; David Larousserie, “Graphene—the New Wonder Material,” Guardian, Nov. 22, 2013.

  80 “will leave virtually no aspect”: Nancy S. Giges, “Top 5 Trends in Nanotechnology,” ASME, March 2013.

  81 Perhaps nanotech’s greatest contributions: “HowStuffWorks ‘Nanotechnology Cancer Treatments,’ ” HowStuffWorks, accessed Sept. 14, 2014, http://​health.​howstuffworks.​com; Dean Ho, “Fighting Cancer with Nanomedicine,” Scientist, April 1, 2014.

  82 Nanotechnology will be immensely impactful: John Gehl, “Nanotechnology: Designs for the Future,” Ubiquity, July 2000, http://​ubiquity.​acm.​org/.

  83 “turning the planet to dust”: “Modern Marvels: Doomsday Tech DVD,” History Channel, Dec. 28, 2004.

  84 “Imagine such a replicator”: Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1987), chap. 4.

  85 While many have dismissed: Robert A. Freitas Jr., “The Gray Goo Problem,” Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence, March 20, 2001; “Address Nanotechnology Concerns, Experts Urge,” Reuters, Nov. 15, 2006.

  86 Eventually, Drexler himself clarified: Paul Rincon, “Nanotech Guru Turns Back on Goo,” BBC, June 9, 2004.

  87 Although there is much work: Jacob Aron, “Google’s Quantum Computer Flunks Landmark Speed Test,” New Scientist, Jan. 15, 2014. 344 in one test carried out by Google and NASA: Nick Statt, “Confirmed, Finally, D-Wave Quantum Computer Is Sometimes Sluggish,” CNET, June 19, 2014.

  88 This could help answer: Tom Simonite, “The CIA and Jeff Bezos Bet on Quantum Computing,” MIT Technology Review, Oct. 4, 2012.

  89 Quantum computers: Ibid.

  90 Even with a supercomputer: Mohit Arora, “How Secure Is AES Against Brute Force Attacks?,” EETimes, May 7, 2012.

  91 Not surprisingly, the NSA: Steven Rich and Barton Gellman, “NSA Seeks to Build Quantum Computer That Could Crack Most Types of Encryption,” Washington Post, Jan. 2, 2014; “Quantum Computing, the NSA, and the Future of Cryptography,” On Point with Tom Ashbrook, WBUR.

  92 In the year 2000: Bill Joy, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” Wired, April 2000.

  Chapter 17: Surviving Progress

  1 “If you never break”: Melanie Pinola, “F**k It, Ship It,” Lifehacker, Aug. 14, 2012.

  2 “Software is bullshit”: See Quinn Norton’s “Everything Is Broken” for an outstanding analysis of the security challenges posed by insecure computer software code, https:/​/​medium.​com/. 353 “we are truly living”: “Be Still My Breaking Heart,” Dan Kaminsky’s Blog.

  3 But we’re nowhere near perfect: Leah Hoffmann, “Risky Business,” Communications of the ACM 54, no. 11 (2011): 20, doi:​10.​1145/​2018396.​2018404.

  4 We can make a change: First Research, “Computer Software Industry Profile,” Aug. 25, 2014.

  5 Importantly, you are equally as likely: Jane Chong, “Bad Code: Should Software Makers Pay? (Part 1),” New Republic, Oct. 3, 2013.

  6 Automobile deaths: “Achievements in Public Health, 1900–1999 Motor Vehicle Safety,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, May 14, 1999, http://​www.​cdc.​gov/.

  7 It is estimated: Alex Wilhelm, “Facebook Sets Revenue per User Records Around the World in Q2,” TechCrunch, July 23, 2014.

  8 “Advertising is the original sin”: Ethan Zuckerman, “The Internet’s Original Sin,” Atlantic, Aug. 14, 2014.

  9 Fifty-five percent: Graham Cluley, “55% of Net Users Use the Same Password for Most, If Not All, Websites,” Naked Security, April 23, 2013; “39 Percent of Smart Phone Users Don’t Secure Their Phones,” Consumer Reports News, May 1, 2013.

  10 Given advances in computing power: Deloitte, “2013 Technology Predictions,” 2013, http://​www.​deloitte.​com.

  11 A study by the computer giant: HP, “HP Study Reveals 70 Percent of Internet of Things Devices Vulnerable to Attack,” July 29, 2014.

  12 That is why fifty-five million: Ben Elgin, Michael Riley, and Dune Lawrence, “Former Home Depot Managers Depict ‘C-Level’ Security Before the Hack,” Bloomberg Businessweek, Sept. 12, 2014.

  13 According to a 2014: IBM Managed Security Services, “2014 Cyber Security Intelligence Index,” July 22, 2014; Fran Howarth, “The Role of Human Error in Successful Security Attacks,” Security Intelligence, September 2, 2014.

  14 This is possible because: “Computer Immune Systems,” Computer Science Department, University of New Mexico, http://​www.​cs.​unm.​edu.

  15 Stronger scent trails: Larry Greenemeier, “Software Mimics Ant Behavior by Swarming Against Cyber Threats,” Observations (blog), Scientific American, Sept. 28, 2009.

  16 In 2012, Janet Napolitano: Mike Masnick, “DHS Boss, in Charge of Cybersecurity, Doesn’t Use Email or Any Online Services,” Techdirt, Sept. 28, 2012.

  17 “are not the most technologically”: Michelle R. Smith, “Kagan: Court Hasn’t Really ‘Gotten to’ Email,” Big Story, Aug. 20, 2013.

  18 Though there are many: Australian Government Department of Defence, “Top 4 Mitigation Strategies to Protect Your ICT System,” http://​www.​asd.​gov.​au/; Australian Government Department of Defence, “The Cyber Threat,” http://www.asd.gov.au/.

  19 An in-depth study: Verizon RISK Team, “2012 Data Breach Investigations Report,” 3, accessed via Wired.

  20 Indeed, a report sponsored: Karl Frederick Rauscher, “The Internet Health Model for Cybersecurity,” EastWest Institute, June 2, 2012.

  Chapter 18: The Way Forward

  1 Today Microsoft Windows: David Weinberg, “95 Percent of U.S. ATMs Run on Windows XP,” MarketPlace.​org, March 19, 2014.

  2 In 2014, only 13 percent: Jeffrey M. Jones, “Congress Job Approval Starts 2014 at 13%,” Gallup, Jan. 14, 2014.

  3 The need is particularly vital: White House Strategy for Homeland Security, Oct. 2007, 4, http://​www.​dhs.​gov/​xlibrary/​assets/​nat_​strat_​homelandsecurity_​2007.​pdf.

  4 A 2010 Government Accountability Office: Critical Infrastructure Protection: Key Private and Public Cyber Expectations Need to Be Consistently Addressed, July 15, 2010, http://​www.​gao.​gov/.

  5 Citizens in Mexico: “Mexico’s Drug War: 50,000 Dead in Six Years,” Atlantic, May 17, 2012; Sara Ines Calderon, “In Mexico, Tech Is Used to Help Combat Narco Violence, Insecurity,” TechCrunch, Dec. 25, 2012; Michele Coscia, “How and Where Do Criminals Operate? Using Google to Track Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations,” Harvard Kennedy School, Oct. 23, 2012.

  6 Over 170,000 documents: George Arnett and James Ball, “Are UK MPs Really Claiming More Expenses Now Than Before the Scandal?,” Guardian, Sept. 12, 2014; Michael Anderson, “Four Crowdsourcing Lessons from the Guardian’s (Spectacular) Expenses-Scandal Experiment,” Nieman Lab, June 23, 2009.

  7 The Rand Corporation has noted: “Shortage of Cybersecurity Professionals Poses Risk to National Security,” June 2014, http://​www.​rand.​org/​news/​press/​2014/​06/​18.​html.

  8 The finding was echoed: Cisco, Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report; Lewis Morgan, “Global Shortage of Two Million Cyber Security Professional
s by 2017,” IT Governance, October 30, 2014, http://​www.​itgovernance.​co.​uk/.

  9 “a failed approach”: Ellen Nakashima, “Cybersecurity Should Be More Active, Officials Say,” Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2012.

  10 The student-run “crowdvestigation”: “University Professor Helps FBI Crack $70 Million Cybercrime Ring,” Rock Center with Brian Williams, March 21, 2012.

  11 In 2011, police in the U.K.: Ben Rooney, “U.K. Government Says It Can’t Tackle Cybercrime on Its Own,” Wall Street Journal, Nov. 25, 2011.

  12 That works out: Jane McGonigal, “We Spend 3 Billion Hours a Week as a Planet Playing Videogames. Is It Worth It? How Could It Be MORE Worth It?,” TED Conversations, http://​www.​ted.​com/.

  13 Because the same image: Miguel Angel Luengo-Oroz, Asier Arran, and John Frean, “Crowdsourcing Malaria Parasite Quantification,” Journal of Medical Internet Research, Nov. 29, 2012.

  14 In one remarkable case: Katia Moskvitch, “Online Game Foldit Helps Anti-AIDS Drug Quest,” BBC News, Sept. 20, 2011, http://​www.​bbc.​com/​news/​technology-​14986013; Matt Peckham, “Foldit Gamers Solve AIDS Puzzle That Baffled Scientists for a Decade,” Time, Sept. 19, 2011.

  Appendix: Everything’s Connected, Everyone’s Vulnerable

  1 Follow these simple steps: According to a study by the Australian Department of Defence, http://​www.​asd.​gov.​au/​publications/​Catch_​Patch_​Match.​pdf.