right so good morning good afternoon or
good evening depending on where you're
joining us from
today i'm miriam a phd researcher
between the daw center for future crime
and the advanced center for biochemical
engineering here at the university
college of london
i researched biocrime the internet of
ingestible things and cyber biosecurity
and alongside my research i'm also
co-founder and director of a med tech
startup my background is in deep tech
and bioengineering and i've experienced
leading award-winning uh projects during
my time at astrazeneca and microsoft and
i'm on a mission to build secure smart
pills for smart health
today i'll tell you what all that means
with a brief background into the topic
then i'll dive into the approach that
i've taken and what my intended outcomes
are so please do follow these icons on
the right
throughout the presentation
right so brief background
what if i told you that your dna is only
0.1 unique to you
and that the ecosystem of microbes in
your gut your gut microbiome is more
than 90 unique to you
and how does your microbial signature
then affect biocrime
well you may not know this but you are
more bacteria than you are actually you
bacteria that live on and inside the
human body make up five microbiomes and
the gut microbiome makes up at least 90
percent of the genes available to your
metabolism
these are essential to things like your
immunity nutrition
and when there are imbalances with your
gut microbiome then it's associated to
diseases such as diabetes obesity and
even depression in fact as you age the
ecosystems of microbes too grow with you
and unlike dna that can only reveal your
genetic makeup your gut microbiome can
reveal your lifestyle who you live with
if you live in the city or if you have a
pet
and believe it or not social behavior
as your gut is linked to your brain
through what's called the gut brain axis
both physically through the vagus nerve
but also indirectly through your gut
microbiome which controls metabolism but
can also modify behavior
several studies have found that people
who have larger social networks are more
likely to have a greater gut microbiome
diversity
there's also been a unique composition
of gut bacteria identified and linked to
behaviors such as atten attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder also
known as adhd
don't believe me well think about the
food that you eat and your mood some
food contains bacteria that make you
more social if you eat it regularly and
for long enough
and not getting enough of it may make
you anti-social
a whole new meaning to the expression we
are what we eat
it's no wonder why there's interest in
accessing the gut through emerging
internet connected digital pills
these swallowable smart pills contain
sensors and have a relatively long
history nasa for example has been using
these to help track their athlete's core
temperature for almost 15 years
now the problem is with emerging
technology comes emerging crime
opportunities health data is being sold
in the black market at 20 times more
than other types of data and unlike your
credit card credentials cannot be
regenerated you simply cannot regenerate
your genome
so what does that mean for the security
of valuable biological material yes i
mean you
well my research aims to underpin
evidence-based policy making regarding
biocrime and where relevant to change
organizational culture and practices to
improve national
security i've conducted a systematic
review published in the international
journal of frontiers edited and reviewed
by members of the cdc the u.s national
university of defense and department of
health services and has reached more
than 5 000 experts worldwide
it revealed the criminogenic potential
of biotechnology specifically in
synthetic biology but i've also elicited
the opinion of field experts with both
traditional
backgrounds such as governmental
officials or security intelligence but
also non-traditional experts such as
biohackers really extract different
views on what crime opportunities might
emerge
and both
strongly agreed that biocrime will take
place in this intersection of the cyber
and bio domains but that there are no
current frameworks in place to really
address these
in fact in light of the pandemic here in
the uk the uk parliament joint committee
on the national security strategy
published a call for evidence
to really assess how prepared the
government is for major biological
security risks using covet as a test
case
and regrettably it found profound
shortcomings in how the government
really safeguards national security
we contributed to this call and provided
three key recommendations
number one create cyber biosecurity
policy and standards to really
strengthen our preparedness
number two adopt an experimental
approach through ethical hacking as a
harm reduction tactic
and number three increase biotechnology
and biosecurity literacy
now
to demonstrate these key recommendations
i've led the very first internet of
ingestible things workshop supported by
the daw center for future crime here at
ucl and by partnering uh by the with a
high biohacking village
this workshop really brought cyber
biosecurity experts and medical device
regulatory bodies to really think about
cyber biosecurity
at the design stage of medical devices
and to inform policy by delivering a set
of principles
because fundamentally security is an
innovation driver and is a business
enabler
so what was our approach
well we call it the hybrid hackathon
delphi model hhdm for short and it has
three phases the first is the hackathon
so a design sprint-like event bringing
domain experts to collaborate uh
intensely on a project
and within the stage we have contextual
talks inviting stakeholders and speakers
including leaders of cyber biosecurity
and future crime research cyber security
professionals medical device
manufacturers but also the users of the
ingestible devices themselves such as
patients and clinicians
stakeholders of the industries of
interest come from a diverse set of
backgrounds and form cross-pollinated
teams to submit their smart pill
proposals
phase two is the delphi model
here the selected top three teams
undergo a series of questioning
to elicit opinions on a security by
design framework relevant to the
internet of ingestible things
finally phase three the teams actually
prototype their ideated ingestible
things device so the hhtm really
captures current and nuanced opinions of
diverse field experts whilst also
generating these detailed hacking
proposals hence the hybrid
so how did we do well we had over 200
attendees that are pre-hackathon talks
27 individual applicants and 17
applicants from a diverse set of
backgrounds including pharma security
intelligence neuroscience they've
generated over 500 ideas and the
finalists teams engaged with more than 4
000 people through their pitching videos
and their public's votes raising
security awareness for the emerging
smart pill technology
now let's meet the finalists the three
top teams and their smart pill designs
and proposals
up we have team smartrace which designed
an ingestible that would trace highly
contagious infections such as the
norovirus but specifically on cruise
ships during quarantine
their proposal introduced the use of
private blockchain for secure and
transparent data transmission
next up is team ibd activate they had
special skills in embedded systems for
iot or the internet of things and they
designed an ingestible things device for
targeted micro dosing of anti-inflamma
inflammatory drugs in the gut and this
was for inflammatory bowel disease
patients so patients with chronic
inflammation in their gut
their proposal focused on the need for
firmware coding and telecommunication
security tailored for clinical and
patient acceptance
finally we had team biota ai which
targeted the 10 to 15 percent of the
worldwide population that is estimated
to suffer from some sort of
gastrointestinal issue
and they proposed a secure clot
communication system designed for this
wider consumer health market
okay so what were our intended outcomes
ultimately our intended outcomes were
twofold first we wanted to demonstrate a
red teaming proof of concept framework
to be introduced to national security is
a continuous cycle of inquiry in
emerging technology to really aid
national security decision making while
using the ingestible medical devices is
an example technology and test bed
in fact there was a second call for
evidence by the uk parliament joint
committee here
related to how a red teaming approach
can be introduced in national security
that we contributed to
secondly uh we wanted to produce a
policy briefing much like the biohacking
community has itself
related to the security required for the
ingestible things ahead they're white
ahead of their widespread use on the
market
we asked our participants about crime
forums the ingestible things may enable
what relevant security should be put in
place who the stakeholders are
and how the ingestible things should be
governed we also asked about
what methods of communication
related to the security
we can implement
to consumers related on the security
needs now we're currently working on
this and it will be published by the end
of the summer so do stay tuned but
please be the first to find out by
scanning the qr code that you see on the
on the presentation to sign up to our
newsletter and be the first to find out
when the policy briefing has been
published
so far this research uh supported by the
doll center has led to a lot of
knowledge transfer activities with
highly specialized groups here
in london as well as presenting to over
200 policy makers of the uk home office
my work has been
recognized and published by the uk
parliament joint committee of national
security and has been featured in a
series of special covet 19 policing
papers by the jill dando institute and
policing insights
part of this research has also been
commercialized into a med tag startup
that's supported by innovate uk
uh and that ranked top five out of last
year's mayor's entrepreneur health award
here in london uh hosted by sadika and
the mayor of london i've also been
shortlisted as a greek international
woman of the year under science and
technology
so in an increasingly health-centered
global economy it is time for cyber
biosecurity so if you too are interested
in prioritizing responsible health tech
with a more bio-savvy
public that demands for secure solutions
then do please get in touch thank you
for listening
you