Biology — Database a Likely Lifesaver

While the National Cyber Security Division’s US-CERT provides cyber security updates and tools to safeguard computers within federal agencies, industry, state and local governments and the public, no such program exists to protect the public from harmful biological threats.

That could change, however, with BioSITES, the vision of Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers Robert Cottingham and Tom Brettin.

“Through CERT, we have a giant knowledge base that provides a national infrastructure to protect our computers from viruses,” Brettin said.

“In the same mold, we see BioSITES as a system to defend against potentially lethal bio-engineered microorganisms.”