[Infowarrior] - Crypto: Watermarking beer DNA

[Richard Forno]

Boffins put encrypted bio-copyright watermarks in beer DNA
No knocking off Blade Runner pleasure replicants
By Lewis Page → More by this author
Published Tuesday 12th June 2007 11:59 GMT

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/12/dna_crypto_watermarked_replicants_n_
beer/

German boffins believe they have developed a computer algorithm which can be
used to hide encrypted "watermarks" within the DNA of living
genetically-modified organisms. The procedure has been successful in
simulated tests on live beer ingredients.

Dominik Heider and Angelika Barnekow of the Department of Experimental
Tumorbiology at the University of Muenster explain their techniques in an
academic paper released last month.

The two boffins' research is aimed at "the application of watermarks based
on DNA sequences to identify the unauthorised use of genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) protected by patents". The idea is that a patented GM
organism - such as a crop, a drug or perhaps in future a Blade Runner-style
engineered human replicant - might be pirated by unscrupulous rival
manufacturers, who could then produce ripoff copies without doing any
development work.

Not if Heider and Barnekow have anything to do with it, though. Dodgy
supermarket-carpark pleasure clones or whatnot would be easily identified as
branded product using the DNA watermark, hidden among the information in
their cells just as a microdot holding a hidden page of text can masquerade
as a full stop on a sheet of paper.

Of course, without encryption, the ripped bio-products could be easily given
fake branding in the same fashion as a knockoff Rolex. The German boffins'
bio-stegano-cryptograms, however, take that into account. Rather than an
obvious image or text, the hidden DNA info would be encrypted. Their
computer program, DNA-Crypt, can be combined with binary encryption
algorithms like AES, RSA or Blowfish, or can be used with one-time pads.

Apparently that's fairly yawn-worthy in the world of
biosteganocrypto-boffinry - Heider and Barnekow cite several previous
researchers who've hidden encrypted messages in DNA. The Germans' special
sauce is that their DNA-Crypt program can deal with the occurrence of
mutations, in which the DNA of the organism in question changes
unpredictably as it reproduces.

"Mutations do not occur very often, approximately 10−10 to 10−15 per cell
division, but they can destroy the encrypted information in DNA sequences,"
according to the Muenster scientists. If a cop or future
Replicant-Industry-Association-of-America (RIAA) enforcer checked a mutated
sample, the watermark could be reduced to hash and the bio-ripper might get
off scot-free.

But the biocopyright-loving boffins reckon they've dealt with this, using
"the 8/4 Hamming-code and ... the WDH-code," which are methods of writing to
DNA which can provide "not only ... error detection but error corrections
which enable us to maintain the data." These methods use up more space than
ordinary DNA fiddling, so the DNA-Crypt platform uses an "integrated fuzzy
controller" which "decides and recommends whether to use the 8/4
Hamming-code, the WDH-code or no mutation correction for optimal
performance." We were especially pleased to hear that it "uses the
Singleton-fuzzyfication," which ought to be a great marketing tool if
nothing else. ("Nexus 6 pleasure models, verified genuine by DNA-Crypt™:now
with Singleton fuzzyfication for optimal performance.")

Heider and Barnekow have done successful tests of their procedure on
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, better known (and loved for its beautiful effects)
as brewer's yeast. Less importantly, it's also used to make bread. However,
the watermarked brewing yeast trials were only in silico - in computer
simulations. No real-world biowatermarked yeast, let alone beer or
pleasure/warrior replicants, has yet been produced.

For those interested, the DNA-Crypt code is Java-based (5.0 and higher) and
cross-platform: Mac or Linux-using replicant designers can get in on the
biowatermarking action.

A preliminary pdf of the research paper is here, and the project homepage -
which will apparently offer DNA-Crypt for download in future - is here.®