Biosecurity

Preventing Bioterrorism, Risk and Legal Instruments

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a bioterrorism attack is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, toxins or other harmful agents used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants. These agents are typically found in nature, but it is possible that they could be mutated or altered to increase their ability to cause disease, make them resistant to current medicines, or to increase their ability to be spread into the environment. In addition to concerns that biological weapons could be developed or used by states, recent technological advances increase the likelihood that these weapons could be acquired or produced by non-state actors, including terrorist organizations. Even small bioterrorist attacks disproportionately spread fear and the threat of such an event is not unfounded as history has shown. The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo unsuccessfully tried to weaponize botulinum toxin and anthrax in the mid-1990s.  In the days after the September 11 attacks in the United States, a series of anthrax-laced letters sent to several news agencies and two U.S. Senators killed five and sickened 17 others. See also this summary of historical attacks using chemical or biological weapons. In 2014 a laptop allegedly owned by a Tunesian Isis militant contained plans to launch terror attacks harnessing the bubonic plague.