Comment by underyx
15 hours ago
And red teaming exercises found that ~80% of labs will gladly synthesize known pathogens without safety review.
15 hours ago
And red teaming exercises found that ~80% of labs will gladly synthesize known pathogens without safety review.
Source? Would love to read more about this.
I misremembered, it’s actually over 90%, and it involved camouflage: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hNUnU8i2yubt5uesmmV17aTJXhY...
The circumstances under which they were able to get the synthesized DNA this way would not work in the general case [1]
>Multiple IGSC member companies detected the ordered sequence and determined the order to be legitimate as defined in the 2023 guidance. Specifically, the orders were placed on behalf of SecureBio, an organization known to IGSC member companies given the role played by SecureBio in the SecureDNA project, an effort to build a DNA synthesis screening system. In addition, the name on the orders was an individual who has co-published multiple times with Esvelt, an individual well known to IGSC companies to work in viral evolution and who is known to have access to laboratory facilities sufficient to work safely with the ordered material.
>In short, the system worked as designed: a legitimate individual ordered DNA sequence that, by itself, posed no risk of misuse, for delivery to a company associated with legitimate scientific contributions directly relevant to the sequence that was ordered.
[1] https://thebulletin.org/2024/06/why-a-misleading-red-team-st...