Network World released this article a week ago about new applications for currently existing technology and how it can be used to steal data in a way you wouldn’t think of. My comments are in bold italics.
If attackers intent on data theft can tap into an electrical socket near a computer or if they can draw a bead on the machine with a laser, they can steal whatever is being typed into it.
This makes pretty much EVERY computer out there a potential target.
How to execute these attacks will be demonstrated at the Black Hat USA 2009 security conference in Las Vegas later this month by Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco, a pair of researchers for network security consultancy Inverse Path.
The Black Hat conference is something I’ve always wanted to attend, but sadly have never had the time to.
“The only thing you need for successful attacks are either the electrical grid or a distant line of sight, no expensive piece of equipment is required,” Barisani and Bianco say in a paper describing the hacks.
Anyone can MacGuyver their way into being major data thieves.
The equipment to carry out the power-line attack could cost as little as $500, and the laser attack gear costs about $100 if the attacker already owns a laptop with a sound card, says Barisani. Carrying out the attacks took about a week, he says.
It makes sense that the power-line attack equipment would be more expensive, the laser gear seems to work on laser bounce principles. Similar to how those listening devices work. Although this seems highly less reliable to me than the electrical version.
Wired magazine recently came out with this article on how once neural implants and prosthetics become more commonplace, they will also be open to hacking. My comments are in bold italics.
Hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that someday, they’ll try to take over your brain.
In the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer, maneuver a wheelchair or even use Twitter — all without lifting a finger. But as neural devices become more complicated, and go wireless, some scientists say the risks of “brain hacking” should be taken seriously.
How You Can Control Computers Mentally
This is some scary stuff, very Orwellian
“Neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future,” said computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno of the University of Washington.
“But if we don’t start paying attention to security, we’re worried that we might find ourselves in five or 10 years saying we’ve made a big mistake.”
Understatement of the year.
Hackers tap into personal computers all the time. But what would happen if they focused their nefarious energy on neural devices, such as the deep-brain stimulators used to treat Parkinson’s and depression, or electrode systems for controlling prosthetic limbs?
For one how about if the anti-depression brain zappers were instead used to incite other emotions, such as love for certain politicians, or hatred for certain peoples. This could be accomplished by stimulating these emotions during campaign commercials, or news stories.
According to Kohno and his colleagues, who published their concerns July 1 in Neurosurgical Focus, most devices carry few security risks. But as neural engineering becomes more complex and more widespread, the potential for security breaches will mushroom.
This I agree with, but not just for those of us with implants; transcranial magnetic stimulation is becoming smaller, easier, and more focused. Plus you better believe somebody somewhere is working on doing it from a distance. Imagine the disaster when someone shoots you with an “awe and worship” beam while showing you pictures of Swastikas and Nazi propaganda? It’s insanely paranoid talk, but some of the tech already exists and more is on the way.
“It’s very hard to design complex systems that don’t have bugs,” Kohno said. “As these medical devices start to become more and more complicated, it gets easier and easier for people to overlook a bug that could become a very serious risk. It might border on science fiction today, but so did going to the moon 50 years ago.”
So in 15 years Norton will be popping up in our retinas asking if we want to renew our “Norton Impl-Ant-i Virus”. FYI Norton if you’re reading this, when you come out with an antivirus for neural implants, I want a cut if you use that name.
Some might question why anyone would want to hack into someone else’s brain, but the researchers say there’s a precedent for using computers to cause neurological harm. In November 2007 and March 2008, malicious programmers vandalized epilepsy support Web sites by putting up flashing animations, which caused seizures in some photo-sensitive patients.
How about “thought viruses” that turn entire groups of people into cultists? Or just plain willingly hand over their money to hackers? Or hold their feelings for ransom? I’m going to stop giving out ideas by citing hypothetical scenarios.
“It happened on two separate occasions,” said computer science graduate student Tamara Denning, a co-author on the paper. “It’s evidence that people will be malicious and try to compromise peoples’ health using computers, especially if neural devices become more widespread.”
A new brand of criminals that will need a new brand of cops.
A New Brand Of Cop
In some cases, patients might even want to hack into their own neural device. Unlike devices to control prosthetic limbs, which still use wires, many deep brain stimulators already rely on wireless signals. Hacking into these devices could enable patients to “self-prescribe” elevated moods or pain relief by increasing the activity of the brain’s reward centers.
This, like most things, would be great in moderation. Who wouldn’t like to just give themselves a pick-me-up when they’re feeling down? The problem would be those of us that decided to give ourselves several consecutive days of orgasmic bliss, and then starved to death by forgetting to eat. It reminds me of BTL chips from Shadowrun or “the wire” from that scifi book series I can’t remember the name of.
Despite the risks, Kohno said, most new devices aren’t created with security in mind. Neural engineers carefully consider the safety and reliability of new equipment, and neuroethicists focus on whether a new device fits ethical guidelines. But until now, few groups have considered how neural devices might be hijacked to perform unintended actions. This is the first time an academic paper has addressed the topic of “neurosecurity,” a term the group coined to describe their field.
I think it’ll be with in my lifetime that human puppet shows will become reality. Watch Ghost in the Shell or most other things by Masamune Shirow and you’ll see what I’m getting at.
“The security and privacy issues somehow seem to slip by,” Kohno said. “I would not be surprised if most people working in this space have never thought about security.”
Kevin Otto, a bioengineer who studies brain-machine interfaces at Purdue Universty, said he was initially skeptical of the research. “When I first picked up the paper, I don’t know if I agreed that it was an issue. But the paper gives a very compelling argument that this is important, and that this is the time to have neural engineers collaborate with security developers.”
Of course it is! It’ll open up another trillion dollar industry, full of fear mongering used to attract customers.
It’s never too early to start thinking about security issues, said neural engineer Justin Williams of the University of Wisconsin, who was not involved in the research. But he stressed that the kinds of devices available today are not susceptible to attack, and that fear of future risks shouldn’t impede progress in the field. “These kinds of security issues have to proceed in lockstep with the technology,” Williams said.
Not susceptible to attack, unless the brainwashing lasers I came up with earlier in the article are used. All it’ll take is someone with lots of money and little ethics. Maybe the fears of future risks SHOULD impede progress in this field. Handle as many foreseeable security issues as you possibly can before you try to move on, as Kohno says further down.
History provides plenty of examples of why it’s important to think about security before it becomes a problem, Kohno said. Perhaps the best example is the Internet, which was originally conceived as a research project and didn’t take security into account.
See?
“Because the Internet was not originally designed with security in mind,” the researchers wrote, “it is incredibly challenging — if not impossible — to retrofit the existing Internet infrastructure to meet all of today’s security goals.” Kohno and his colleagues hope to avoid such problems in the neural device world, by getting the community to discuss potential security problems before they become a reality.
“The first thing is to ask ourselves is, ‘Could there be a security and privacy problem?’” Kohno said. “Asking ‘Is there a problem?’ gets you 90 percent there, and that’s the most important thing.”
I think that my commentary alone suggests that YES there is in fact a problem. Now it’s just up to the big dogs to solve them as best they can before they happen.
In February of this year IBM issued a patent for exo-armor that would allow you to dodge bullets. Unfortunately they’ve since pulled the patent. I still think that this is remarkable.
Their patent was a combination of high accuracy sensors (to detect high velocity projectiles in flight, and calculate their exact trajectories) and exo-suit technology (if you happened to be in the path of said projectile, the exo-suit would shove you out of the way faster than you could react). Their logic was that sniper bullets come from far enough away to give the sensors and suit enough time to move your butt to safety. Sound like Neo to you?
I’m Getting My Butt To Safety!
I think the only limits to this would be processing speed, which wouldn’t be a limit for long. There are so many immediate ways I could see to enhance this as well. Terahertz wave (and other) detectors could be used to track ALL firearms in an area, and a computer algorithm could be used to track all of their potential trajectories.
The sensors could then be used to tell if the guns were in people’s hands or not, and behavioral algorithms (which AFAIK have already been developed) could be used to tell if the person holding the gun was acting aggressively.
Couple that with the ability to read the movement of a trigger finger, and you could have the person dodging a split second before the gun is actually fired; starting to dodge after the trigger was pulled, but BEFORE the hammer came down. This would greatly shorten the range, allowing you to dodge even point blank in ideal conditions.
All Conditions Are Ideal For Me
With advanced enough algorithms, you could even have this thing letting you dodge attacks in hand to hand combat and make it look effortless. Jackie Chan’s suit from The Tuxedo comes to mind.
Today we’ll be discussing the XM-25, a weapon due to be field tested this summer. It’s a smart weapon that fires programmed air burst projectiles. Basically this means that when it fires a missile, instead of the missile exploding on contact with the target, it will explode at a predetermined point in mid flight.
This will make things such as hiding behind cover obsolete due to the fact illustrated below.
Goes harmlessly over cover.
Flies along harmlessly until it gets directly over cover, then BOOM! Cover doesn’t mean squat.
This weapon was developed in a joint project by Germany’s Heckler & Koch, and Alliant Techsystems in the US. It’s semi-automatic with a 5 round magazine, weighs in at 14 lbs., and is fired from the shoulder, what more could you want? How about the XM116 integral fire system? This internal system controls each of the rounds fired out of the weapon using therm-optics, day-sight, laser range finder, compass and infrared light. It then uses internal computers to calculate the exact distance and appropriate firing position for the rounds to blow up, which it does via wireless connection.
Its range is impressive too; area targets at 700m, point targets at 500. With rounds consisting of High Explosive Air-Burst shots, anti-personnel, blunt and agent dispersing airburst non-lethal rounds, armor piercing, and door breaching munitions, this is one weapon you want Santa to leave in your stocking.
Having your own business, from my point of view, is very important. Working to make something out of (and for) yourself as opposed to making someone else wealthy. There are a few fundamental steps to take when building your own business, which I will chronicle here with some detail.
1. Have An Idea
First off you need an idea, whether this is a truly unique idea or just a unique take on an existing idea is fine. Your business ideas can range from the fantastic to the mundane, and be anything from a service to a reusable or consumable product (I’d recommend service or consumable product if you want to have recurring income). Ideas don’t fall from trees; some of you may be very creative and some of you might not be. Either is okay.
For those of you who are a bit creatively stunted right now, I’ve found this nifty idea generator online.
Idea Generator
You can use it by pressing the arrows to turn the dials, or by clicking on the intertwined arrows to generate a random idea. It does generate some pretty cool ideas by themselves, or aspect of ideas that can really get your creative juices flowing. Thanks to our friends at The Directors Bureau Special Projects for providing this amazing widget free of charge. It almost makes me want to compulsively try every idea it generates.
2. Market Research
This is the next and probably most important step you can do. It’ll allow you to decide if an idea is worth investing your time and (possibly someone else’s) money on. There are several ways to go about doing this. You can go the fast and easy route and do it online, or you can hire somebody to do it for you.
If you go about it online, you can use an awesome program like Market Samurai which comes with a 12 day free trial that is SO worth it, or you can join the 30 Day Challenge to learn all about marketing and building an online business and Market Samurai will come with a FORTY DAY free trial. Cool stuff!
You can also use a program called Micro Niche Finder to do similar research. This ingenious program has a lot of overlapping functionality with Market Samurai, but like its Samurai cousin it has independent features too. It’s also much more user friendly for the newbies out there.
Both programs are excellent tools that truly make market research super fast and super easy. They also both have AMAZING free tutorial videos to not only teach you how to use the programs, but how to use them to make some quick, easy money by generating affiliate income streams.
Next you can do manual online market research. The following an amazing Youtube video from the 30 Day Challenge training about doing manual market research online.
There are more videos that expand on these principles both manually and using software, so I’d recommend just joining the 30 Day Challenge to see what they have to offer, it’s free and amazing.
Finally you can go the government route, like I can with Small Business BC which has free market research tools or a paid service where they do it for you. You can also go through an online market research firm like Tab House, or Google it.
3. Product Development
If your market research proves that your idea is something workable, the next step is to make your product viable by developing it. If you have the personal know how to build your product, go for it. If you don’t, you can hire a service to do it for you.
Elance.com is perfect for this. You can find TONS of freelancers from every walk of life. Programmers, engineers, etc. and all of them looking for work. You can also post a job you want done, and professionals will bid on it for the right to work for you. This is usually much cheaper than finding a lab to do development for you. Although you can do that too, using Google. One place I found is called Sunrise Labs.
4. Mass Production
Once you’ve had your product developed to the point where it can be made as small, cheap, and safe as possible, it’s time to go into mass production. Many times when you outsource development to a lab, you’ll find that they may even have the facilities to mass produce your item. Either that or you can take the prototype (or chemical formula etc.) they’ve made for you to a company that exists specifically to mass produce the type of product you’ve got.
Wikipedia has a great list of manufacturing companies from all over the US. This will require some additional research on your part, but Google can also help you if you search for the topic relevant to your item and manufacturers e.g. “Ski pole manufacturers”. You can then contact the companies you find and ask them if they’d be interested in either licensing your product (earning you a percentage of every one of your items that they sell) or producing it for you in bulk for a fee up front.
5. Marketing
The final step to this wondrous process is marketing. This is the process of advertising your product and getting it out there for people to buy. You can do this yourself in a limited fashion i.e. taking internet marketing courses, learning how to use things like Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.), Google Adwords etc. or you can hire a marketing firm or advertising agency which can get your product out there and advertised online as well as in the real world.
If you’ve done proper market research, made a good product, and done good marketing that adapts in real time to your market’s changes, you should start raking in the dough.
This is all a pretty vast simplification of the process, and will require you do a lot of your own research, but I hope it’s opened your eyes to how you can build yourself a successful business.
If you go about it online, you can use an awesome program like 