Malice Analysis: Assessing Biotechnology Research for Security Concerns
The EBRC offers Malice Analysis Workshops as part of an ongoing effort to increase security awareness in the engineering biology community. Workshops train researchers and others associated with engineering biology to critically evaluate research for potential security concerns. By providing practitioners with the tools and a framework to conduct basic security analyses, EBRC hopes to support a culture in the field of engineering biology that incorporates the consideration and discussion of security into the research and development life-cycle.
The EBRC hosts two versions of Malice Analysis Workshops; one is geared toward academics and one is for industry professionals. Academic workshops are targeted to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and train them to evaluate their own work for potential security concerns using a widely applicable framework. Industry workshops focus on security concerns extending beyond intellectual property and physical material security to encourage careful exploration of the impacts of research and development and the ways that products or technologies might be misused by nefarious actors.
The EBRC also produces related white papers and briefing materials for federal and private funders of engineering biology research to promote a holistic community mindset about security that is supported by diverse stakeholders.
These efforts are funded by the US Department of Homeland Security under Grant Award Numbers 2017‐ST‐108‐FRG002, 18STFRG00006-01-01, and #19STFRG00011-01-00.
Contact helix@ebrc.org with questions.