Ethics, Privacy, and the Future of Genetic Information in Healthcare Information Assurance and Security John A. Springer Purdue University, USA Jonathan Beever Purdue University, USA Nicolae Morar Purdue University, USA Jon E. Sprague Ohio Northern University, USA Michael D. Kane Purdue University, USA ABSTRACT The risks associated with the misuse and abuse of genetic information are very high, as such exploitation of an individual’s genetic predisposition to adversity represents the ultimate example of identity theft. Hence, as the frontline of defense, information assurance and security practitioners must be intimately familiar with the multidimensional aspects surrounding the use of genetic information in healthcare. To achieve that aim, this chapter addresses the ethical, privacy, economic, and legal aspects of the future uses of genetic information in healthcare and discusses the impact of these uses on information assurance and security. The reader gains an effective ethical framework in which to understand and evaluate the competing demands placed upon the information assurance and security practitioners by the transformative utility of genomics. INTRODUCTION With the first decade of the twenty-first century rapidly coming to a close, the advancement of biotechnology and its related applications have contributed to the creation of a new set of concerns for information assurance and security practitioners that extend beyond the safeguarding of the digital realm and into the processes that regulate and influence life: genetic information. The stakes associated with the misuse and abuse of this information are very high, as such exploitation of an individual’s genetic predisposition to adversity represents the ultimate example of identity theft. Hence, as the frontline of defense, information assurance and security practitioners must be intimately familiar with the multidimensional aspects surrounding the use of genetic information in healthcare. Toward that end, this chapter addresses the ethical, privacy, economic, and legal aspects of the future uses of genetic information in healthcare, and the