I wonder what would happen if they tested them on, say, mathematicians or engineers with a penchant for numbers.
Could work for our against them - what if they've all chosen the start of the Fibonacci sequence as their PIN?
Dammit.
Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
51–60 of 70 posts
Re: Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
#52This relies on an unsuspecting victim wearing a complicated nonstandard headset and then looking at a series of images / numbers slowly enough to register each of them consciously. In what world would the victim not become suspicious? (I appreciate things may change in the future, and if brain control headsets become common then a malware model (ad popups, for example) could provide a plausible vector for this attack…
It's my understanding that the headset is in fact standard: (from the actual paper) "The experiments are implemented and tested using a Emotiv EPOC BCI device" (from the hyperbole article) "For $200-300, you can buy an Emotiv" In what world would the victim not become suspicious? I think this result is framed as "if BCI-controlled gaming takes off, it doesn't take much to harvest personal data from gamers". Also, I w…
I apologise - I meant "nonstandard" as "my mum doesn't have one".
resisting this sort of thing is easy, just think "loud" alternative thoughts and close your eyes so you don't see the stimulus. Sing a song in your head. Anything.
Re: Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
#53Wow I wasn't aware that EEGs are this cheap. Does anyone know how well these 200-300$ thingies play with Linux and how easy it is to hack around with them generally? I'd love to log my brain activities while learning, reading or playing poker :D Edit: Seems like the Emotive EPOC has an SDK that supports Linux and also an open source library called Emokit that was build from reverse engineering the device's communicat…
Turns out they aren't actually that cheap. To get a real EEG from Emotiv, it's $750 just for the device - the $300 version doesn't seem to actually be an EEG, they call it an EPOC, and don't exactly explain what it is, but do mention that it will not give you access to raw EEG data, which is what you need for any sort of legitimate experiment. On top of that, if you want to use the SDK, licensed properly, you need to pay an additional $500 or more. So if you want to play with an EEG and it's API, the minimum price you're really paying is $1250 - far from the $300 mentioned in the article.
In addition, these cheaper consumer EEGs don't produce research-grade data, so while they are good for messing around and experimenting, if you want to get serious, you'll need to upgrade to a more expensive headset.
Re: Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
#54This is an awfully contrived title for an article that could be summarized as "people can find out whether or not you recognize something shown to you by monitoring electrical activity along the scalp."
Well the SCIFI-future scenario is valid though. Imagine a world in which people use such devices regularly. It's not that hard to envision some social media application or game that can extract some information without you being aware of it.
Re: Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
#55Wow I wasn't aware that EEGs are this cheap. Does anyone know how well these 200-300$ thingies play with Linux and how easy it is to hack around with them generally? I'd love to log my brain activities while learning, reading or playing poker :D Edit: Seems like the Emotive EPOC has an SDK that supports Linux and also an open source library called Emokit that was build from reverse engineering the device's communicat…
Turns out they aren't actually that cheap. To get a real EEG from Emotiv, it's $750 just for the device - the $300 version doesn't seem to actually be an EEG, they call it an EPOC, and don't exactly explain what it is, but do mention that it will not give you access to raw EEG data, which is what you need for any sort of legitimate experiment. On top of that, if you want to use the SDK, licensed properly, you need to…
Quickly browsing the github page of the OS-library it seems like you can extract the raw data from the EPOC which would turn the 300$ one into a decent enough device.
Granted you'd have to write the unfolding algorithm and infrastructure stuff yourself (eventhough I'd guess someone probably has done this already)
Seems like a neat enough toy to add it to my xmas-wishlist. Time to build a light version of the "Ready Player One" cyberworld :P
I used to play poker semiprofessionally and could see this as a very useful device to identify tilt (and shutdown the pokerclient or at least give you an alarm of sorts) or generally wear it while grinding and see what helpful info you can extract when comparing to your hands database.
Re: Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
#56Wow I wasn't aware that EEGs are this cheap. Does anyone know how well these 200-300$ thingies play with Linux and how easy it is to hack around with them generally? I'd love to log my brain activities while learning, reading or playing poker :D Edit: Seems like the Emotive EPOC has an SDK that supports Linux and also an open source library called Emokit that was build from reverse engineering the device's communicat…
Turns out they aren't actually that cheap. To get a real EEG from Emotiv, it's $750 just for the device - the $300 version doesn't seem to actually be an EEG, they call it an EPOC, and don't exactly explain what it is, but do mention that it will not give you access to raw EEG data, which is what you need for any sort of legitimate experiment. On top of that, if you want to use the SDK, licensed properly, you need to…
> it will not give you access to raw EEG data, which is what you need for any sort of legitimate experiment.
Re: Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
#57This is how it will go down. First, the government is going to own these companies. Then they are going to declare the technology illegal to use in private hands. Third, they will train operatives that can only be certified by government agencies to use these devices.
Well mounting skimming hardware in ATMs is illegal as well, do you think that will stop criminals from abusing this?
Re: Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
#58This seems like testifying against yourself. Aren't lie detector type systems only done voluntarily? Related, the MRI lie detector: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19092066
I don't think governments that permit waterboarding of suspects will care about that? Let alone criminal organizations.
Re: Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
#59[deleted]
Re: Hackers backdoor the human brain, successfully extract sensitive data
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently got a new card and remembered the PIN spatially. After a few times of typing it in I realised that, though I was typing the digits of the new PIN, I was subvocalising the digits of my old PIN. It was a really odd sensation. Having said that, I would recognise both PINs as both a string of digits and as a spatial sequence... so that would probably just be another attack vector.
> I realised that, though I was typing the digits of the new PIN, I was subvocalising the digits of my old PIN. I trained myself to do this on purpose; subvocalising a different number. If I'm drugged out in a hospital bed and someone asks for my CC PIN, I want them to get an incorrect number.
Wow. I used to think that I was rigorous about security...