What is Neurosecurity?

An Introduction to Security of the Mind

Photo by Ramón Salinero on Unsplash

Introduction

Neurosecurity is a field of study and practice which involves the securing of neural devices — including the brain itself — from tampering or invasion of privacy by external actors or forces.

The advent of brain-computer interfaces has increased the attention on the security of brain-connected hardware, exposing risks such as having data siphoned directly from the interface or being remotely controlled by an attacker. While these areas of concern are important, there exists a general challenge in securing the mind in the digital world as it is.

Already, technology corporations are driving human behavior on a grand scale, using highly-efficient and incredibly powerful data models — of both human behavior on an abstract level and the particular habits and patterns of each individual gained from observation — meaning that the field of neurosecurity already applies to most of us living on this planet.

While neural interfaces such as implants and other devices must absolutely be secured to the best possible level, neurosecurity applies to everyone in modern society who interacts with computers and other advanced electronics in ways which affect their behavior.

Concepts

The idea of neurosecurity, from a computer science perspective, is fundamentally no different from general information security. The general premise is the same: keep a system from being effected in negative ways by external forces or environmental factors.

When referring to the security of the mind, the important question to ask is: what are we securing the mind from, and how do we do it?

Assuming that a person of reasonable self-awareness will generally think and act in ways that are beneficial to themselves and others, a risk factor in neurosecurity could be considered any mental state change in that person which would cause them to think otherwise (in counter-productive or self-limiting ways for example).

These can range from environmental risks, such as over-exposure to RF causing oxidative stress to DNA within the central nervous system, to targeted attacks like brain-jacking neural implants to…