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An Oxford university researcher has warned of the dangers of “brainjacking” in the future if brain implants were susceptible to hacking.
PhD candidate Laurie Pycroft used an editorial on The Conversation to suggest that as technology continues to evolve and become increasingly part of medical work, a “new frontier of security threat” would appear.
“In a recent paper that I and several of my colleagues at Oxford Functional Neurosurgery wrote, we discussed a new frontier of security threat: brain implant,” he wrote.
“Unauthorised control of brain implants, or ‘brainjacking’, has been discussed in science fiction for decades but with advances in implant technology it is now starting to become possible.”
Pycroft goes on to detail how implants are already being used to treat muscle spasms as well as Parkinson’s disease, with stimulation being provided deep inside the brain by implanted electrodes.
“Targeting different brain regions with different stimulation parameters gives neurosurgeons increasingly precise control over the human brain, allowing them to alleviate distressing symptoms,” Pycroft said.
“However, this precise control of the brain, coupled with the wireless control of stimulators, also opens an opportunity for malicious attackers to go beyond the more straightforward harms that could come with controlling insulin pumps or cardiac implants, into a realm of deeply troubling attacks.”
He suggests that stimulation could be altered so that targets are placed in pain, or implants could be used to force behavioural changes in subjects.
However, he does also note that nothing of this nature has been reported yet.
“It’s important to note that there’s no evidence to suggest that any of these implants has been subjected to such a cyber-attack in the real world, nor that patients with them currently implanted should be afraid,” he concludes.
“Still, this is an issue that device makers, regulators, scientists, engineers and clinicians all need to consider before they become a reality.”
