Distributed Denial of Service Cyberbioattack Affecting Bacteria-based Biosensing Systems

Bacteria are microorganisms found in the human body, and almost in everywhere, that recently they have been investigated as human gut's health indicator. After colonizing a surface, bacterial populations form biofilms, which is their natural protection mechanism against physical attacks, harmful chemical compounds and environmental changes. Recent studies have shown that bacteria can be engineered to act as biosensors and bioactuators, externally controlled by electric signals. Despite the benefits provided by biosensors in terms of metabolic diseases diagnosis and treatment, they also open the door to novel cyberbioattacks due to the impossibility of implementing security mechanisms in resource-constrained engineered bacteria. In this context, we have reproduced a distributed denial of service (DDoS) cyberbioattack performed by engineered bacteria that diffuse jamming signals affecting the production of the biofilm structure. A pool of experiments has shown that higher amplitudes and periods in the signal controlling the engineered bacteria have a greater impact on the biofilm disruption.