Introduction: Origin and Intent for the New Field of Cyberbiosecurity

While important, today’s biosecurity is too narrowly focused on current and emerging threats. Most biological functions, operations, and outcomes rely on information technologies (IT). While extraordinarily beneficial, relying on cyber technologies also presents risks. Threats in cyberspace abound and could be focused on biological-based targets for an array of purposes and reasons all resulting in negative outcomes. Cyberbiosecurity was created to help the spectrum of the life sciences to begin to understand potential cyberthreats and develop defenses, recovery protocols, and resilience strategies.