Do-it-yourself (DIY) techniques can be an excellent way to enrich your life, gain new skills, and pursue hobbies of your own – but some projects can be hazardous, such as grinder body modification experiments.
While biohackers may feel frustrated by the slow progress in medicine, it’s essential that they adhere to ethical codes if they wish to safely use these tools.
It’s a community
Biohacking village is a convergence of biology and cybersecurity that brings together scientists, hackers, developers, researchers, healthcare professionals and more to create meaningful technology for health care. This diverse community offers hands-on learning labs that inform global conversations on health care cybersecurity research – representing voices who understand code as genetic material, subroutines as organic processes, and programs as life itself.
The BHV community is dedicated to safeguarding human lives through an open exchange of knowledge and experience in medical device security. As a 501(c)3 organization, they work closely with regulatory bodies like FDA to drive innovation in safety and security of medical devices. Furthermore, they offer medical device manufacturers access to actual, simulated, and testbed medical devices so they may assess vulnerabilities as well as providing disclosure support services that facilitate timely flaw discovery within product development cycles.
Join this vibrant and cutting-edge community at DEF CON this year, joining thousands of volunteers who contribute their skills and work hard to produce an unforgettable event. It takes 360 days just to compile DEF CON, with more than 3,000 donated hours being put in by participants themselves!
DEF CON’s Biohacking Village presents security researchers and defenders with an unprecedented opportunity to discover medical device hacking through exploration of an immersive hospital-themed environment, known as the Biohacking Village: Device Lab. The event provides a safe space for collaboration and discussion regarding potential medical device vulnerabilities in an open, high-trust environment; attendees typically include patients, hackers, developers, device manufacturers, hospitals clinicians regulators.
It’s a space
Biohacker spaces (or biohacker labs) are community laboratories where those interested in manipulating biological materials come together to experiment (Scheifele & Burkett, 2016). Unlike government and corporate laboratories, these labs do not operate for profit or not-for-profit and often do not have formal governance structures or any oversight at all; some belong to larger organizations with more formal structures of governance (or not at all!).
These communities do not seek formal patent measures as a means of protecting their research; rather, they prefer open approaches to science and collaborations with other biohacker spaces and academic laboratories. This model allows more people to embark on biology projects which may lead to inclusive innovation.
As a result, biohacking spaces have gained momentum among individuals without access to traditional research funding sources. While some biohacking labs receive support through public grants or university operating budgets, others may use crowdfunding campaigns or venture capital investments as sources of financing – whatever their source, these labs demonstrate how flexible intellectual property systems can support more individuals working toward common goals despite limited resources.
Biohacker spaces can reduce risks associated with working with biological materials by adhering to stringent safety protocols. For instance, biohackers cannot order DNA samples from companies participating in the International Gene Synthesis Consortium unless they can provide full sequence details of each sample’s sequence – this ensures that no pathogens enter into its production process.
Biohacking has emerged as an important topic at DEF CON, and plays an integral part of cybersecurity ecosystem. Participants in this conference are encouraged to connect and share experiences while adhering to a code of conduct which respects personal boundaries and comfort levels as well as refraining from acts such as racism, discrimination or harassment.
At this year’s conference, The Biohacking Village will explore cybersecurity threats to healthcare through tabletop exercises and hands-on workshops. Cal Poly’s California Cybersecurity Institute (CCI) is teaming up with Abbott Healthcare to create an immersive hospital set where hackers will compete to defend a real healthcare environment from cyberattack. Nina Alli, professor in California College of Technology who specializes in security, technology integration and legacy system modernization will lead this exercise.
It’s a way of life
The Biohacking Village at DEF CON is an immersive medical set design created by Cal Poly’s California Cybersecurity Institute (CCI), with funding and technical assistance from global healthcare company Abbott. The village aims to protect both human life and patient safety by addressing cybersecurity risks within healthcare, with attendees challenged to defend hospital equipment from hacking attempts via scenario-driven Capture the Flag contests.
The Red Team Village will feature five stations featuring numerous exercises where participants can practice and learn new skills, from red team methodologies and various exploit, evasion and persistance techniques to red team talks from Red Team experts over three days. Talks are non-interactive presentations using slides to inform audiences of a relevant technology or project.
Apart from its village labs, the conference will provide various other activities to bring participants together and foster relationships between themselves and one another. Examples of these include the IoT Village – featuring expert security researchers speaking – and the Black Badge CTF where contestants compete against one another to hack IoT devices available off-the-shelf.
AppSec Village provides an immersive experience in application security. Here, even novice app defenders and professional deserialization attackers alike can learn from one another and hone their craft.
DEF CON is more than villages; there are also multiple tracks of talks and demos. These talks provide a great opportunity to network within the security community while meeting people that share your interests. Tracks are organized according to topic, audience size and presentation style for easy viewing during DEF CON. In addition, workshops, networking programs and parties take place throughout the conference too!
Do-It-Yourself Biology (DIYbio) has gained significant traction since its genesis in San Francisco in 2005. The movement, which marries hacker culture with DIYbio, creates new ways of making things work better by merging elements from both. Other names for it include wetware hacking, grinder body modification and biopunk; among the public projects available to participants include Genspace in Oakland CA and Counter Culture Labs of Seattle WA.
It’s a lifestyle
Biohacking refers to using science and technology to enhance life quality. Biohackers are a community of individuals who utilize various techniques in order to optimize their health and performance – they usually focus on optimizing brain, body and energy performance. Though some methods may seem controversial at first, some scientifically-backed practices might help lengthen lives significantly – however if interested in biohacking for yourself first consult a doctor first before making decisions based on these approaches alone.
If you’re new to biohacks and biohacking techniques, it is wise to start slowly and build upon what works. For instance, try adding some butter or nutritional supplements as ways of providing sustained energy throughout the day and increasing mood. But be wary – overdoing things can have detrimental health implications if abused!
One of the more popular biohacks is wearing a FitBit to track your fitness and diet, which can help motivate more exercise while eating healthier. Some even use FitBits as sleep controllers. But keep in mind that many biohacks are unregulated and should only be done under medical supervision.
Biohacking is an emerging movement transforming healthcare. This field brings together hackers, doctors, researchers and others from within the industry to collaborate on solving complex problems collaboratively – providing significant contributions towards protecting security in healthcare ecosystems while encouraging innovation and creativity.
This year’s BioHacking Village will feature a hospital-inspired simulation that allows participants to test out cybersecurity solutions. Participants will gain access to an assortment of medical equipment and devices as well as interact with patients, device manufacturers, and clinicians during this workshop.
This environment provides hackers with a safe and educational environment to learn how to protect the human body from hacks that might cause harm, such as biohacks like wearing FitBits or taking certain vitamins. Other techniques may be more complex; RFID implants and injections require supervision by medical professionals for maximum safety.
