- Apr 26, 2017
- 89
HEADSETS that monitor your brainwaves could allow hackers to empty your bank account, scientists fear.
High-tech helmets called electroencephalograms or EEGs are often used to diagnose epilepsy, but are beginning to appear on the toy and video game markets.
A recent study found that EEGs could easily be hacked and have prompted serious security concerns in the scientific community
You can buy devices that allow you control robotic toys or play video games using just your mind for just £100.
But a study recently proved that hackers could guess a user’s passwords using these headsets to monitor victims’ brainwaves.
And now scientists are concerned that EEGs could be used in a similar way.
Nitesh Saxena, associate professor in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, along with PhD student Ajaya Neupane and Doctor Lutfor Rahman, found that a person who paused a video game and logged into a bank account while wearing an EEG could have their passwords or personal information nabbed by malicious software.
“These emerging devices open immense opportunities for everyday users,” Saxena told Phys.org.
“However, they could also raise significant security and privacy threats as companies work to develop even more advanced brain-computer interface technology.”
The researchers used two headsets to test their hypothesis – one clinical grade and one which can be bought online.
Both headsets monitored visual processing, hand-eye and head muscle movements to “learn” what numbers a person was thinking about.
EEGs are already used in clinical trials and for diagnosing brain ailments, but they are tipped to become a consumer gadget in the near future
Hackers could exploit this, they claim, by getting someone playing a game using a headset to enter a set of numbers shown on screen after pausing for a break.
The hidden program would prompt an annoying CAPTCHA-style box in which users type set of letters to prove "I'm not a robot" so it could figure out someone's signature brainwaves.
High-tech helmets called electroencephalograms or EEGs are often used to diagnose epilepsy, but are beginning to appear on the toy and video game markets.
A recent study found that EEGs could easily be hacked and have prompted serious security concerns in the scientific community
You can buy devices that allow you control robotic toys or play video games using just your mind for just £100.
But a study recently proved that hackers could guess a user’s passwords using these headsets to monitor victims’ brainwaves.
And now scientists are concerned that EEGs could be used in a similar way.
Nitesh Saxena, associate professor in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, along with PhD student Ajaya Neupane and Doctor Lutfor Rahman, found that a person who paused a video game and logged into a bank account while wearing an EEG could have their passwords or personal information nabbed by malicious software.
“These emerging devices open immense opportunities for everyday users,” Saxena told Phys.org.
“However, they could also raise significant security and privacy threats as companies work to develop even more advanced brain-computer interface technology.”
The researchers used two headsets to test their hypothesis – one clinical grade and one which can be bought online.
Both headsets monitored visual processing, hand-eye and head muscle movements to “learn” what numbers a person was thinking about.
EEGs are already used in clinical trials and for diagnosing brain ailments, but they are tipped to become a consumer gadget in the near future
Hackers could exploit this, they claim, by getting someone playing a game using a headset to enter a set of numbers shown on screen after pausing for a break.
The hidden program would prompt an annoying CAPTCHA-style box in which users type set of letters to prove "I'm not a robot" so it could figure out someone's signature brainwaves.
The team found that after 200 characters, algorithms could make a decent guess about what the person was thinking.
