Wiseguys can use GEAR, to get in your head and gather information:

bobgnote · Sep 6, 2012

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...man-brain-successfully-extract-sensitive-data

With a chilling hint of the not-so-distant future, researchers at the Usenix Security conference have demonstrated a zero-day vulnerability in your brain. Using a commercial off-the-shelf brain-computer interface, the researchers have shown that its possible to hack your brain, forcing you to reveal information that youd rather keep secret.

As weve covered in the past, a brain-computer interface is a two-part device: Theres the hardware which is usually a headset (an EEG; an electroencephalograph) with sensors that rest on your scalp and software, which processes your brain activity and tries to work out what youre trying to do (turn left, double click, open box, etc.) BCIs are generally used in a medical setting with very expensive equipment, but in the last few years cheaper, commercial offerings have emerged. For $200-300, you can buy an Emotiv (pictured above) or Neurosky BCI, go through a short training process, and begin mind controlling your computer.
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Both of these commercial BCIs have an API an interface that allows developers to use the BCIs output in their own programs. In this case, the security researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Geneva, and the University of California, Berkeley created a custom program that was specially designed with the sole purpose of finding out sensitive data, such as the location of your home, your debit card PIN, which bank you use, and your date of birth. The researchers tried out their program on 28 participants (who were cooperative and didnt know that they were being brain-hacked), and in general the experiments had a 10 to 40% chance of success of obtaining useful information (pictured above).

To extract this information, the researchers rely on whats known as the P300 response a very specific brainwave pattern (pictured right) that occurs when you recognize something that is meaningful (a persons face), or when you recognize something that fits your current task (a hammer in the shed). The researchers basically designed a program that flashes up pictures of maps, banks, and card PINs, and makes a note every time your brain experiences a P300. Afterwards, its easy to pore through the data and work out with fairly good accuracy where a person banks, where they live, and so on.

In a real-world scenario, the researchers foresee a game that is specially tailored by hackers to extract sensitive information from your brain or perhaps an attack vector that also uses social engineering to lull you into a false sense of security. Its harder to extract data from someone who knows theyre being attacked as interrogators and torturers well know.

Moving forward, this brain hack can only improve in efficacy as BCIs become cheaper, more accurate, and thus more extensively used. Really, your only defense is to not think about the topic but if youre proactively on the defensive, then the hacker has already messed up. The only viable solution that I can think of is to ensure that you dont use your brain-computer interface with shady software, brain malware but then again, in a science-fictional future, isnt it almost guaranteed that the government would mandate the inclusion of brain-hacking software in the operating system itself?
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P-300 response:

Watch out, for a government, with corporate agendas. You will get wired, by self-interested players, from both arenas.

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Wiseguys can use GEAR, to get in your head and gather information:

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