Defending our public biological databases as a global critical infrastructure

Caswell, Jacob; Gans, Jason; Generous, Nicholas; Hudson, Corey M.; Merkley, Eric; Johnson, Curtis; Oehmen, Christopher; Omberg, Kristin; Purvine, Emilie; Taylor, Karen; Ting, Christina L.; Wolinsky, Murray; Xie, Gary

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00058

Defending our public biological databases as a global critical infrastructure

Journal Article · Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2019.00058· OSTI ID:1499035

Caswell, Jacob ^[1]; Gans, Jason ^[2]; Generous, Nicholas ^[2]; Hudson, Corey M. ^[3]; Merkley, Eric ^[4]; Johnson, Curtis ^[1]; Oehmen, Christopher ^[4]; Omberg, Kristin ^[4]; Purvine, Emilie ^[4]; Taylor, Karen ^[4]; Ting, Christina L. ^[1]; Wolinsky, Murray ^[2]; Xie, Gary ^[2]

Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Progress in modern biology is being driven, in part, by the large amounts of freely available data in public resources such as the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC), the world’s primary database of biological sequence (and related) information. INSDC and similar databases have dramatically increased the pace of fundamental biological discovery and enabled a host of innovative therapeutic, diagnostic, and forensic applications. However, as high-value, openly shared resources with a high degree of assumed trust, these repositories share compelling similarities to the early days of the Internet. Consequently, as public biological databases continue to increase in size and importance, we expect that they will face the same threats as undefended cyberspace. There is a unique opportunity, before a significant breach and loss of trust occurs, to ensure they evolve with quality and security as a design philosophy rather than costly “retrofitted” mitigations. Furthermore this Perspective surveys some potential quality assurance and security weaknesses in existing open genomic and proteomic repositories, describes methods to mitigate the likelihood of both intentional and unintentional errors, and offers recommendations for risk mitigation based on lessons learned from cybersecurity.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001; AC04-94AL85000; AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1499035

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1511631
OSTI ID: 1525104

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--19-21685; PNNL-SA--139972; SAND--2019-2221J; 672991

Journal Information:: Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Journal Name: Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology Vol. 7; ISSN 2296-4185

Publisher:: Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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