This is your brain. This is your brain… hacked?

Could your central intelligence system get hacked?

The idea of controlling computers with our thoughts alone is pretty cool. Researchers have developed neural technologies that allow users to control wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs with their minds. The technology continues to evolve. I hope one day to blog with my hands free for drinking coffee and eating breakfast. My posts would likely go up much earlier in the morning.

But one computer expert is making my dreams of simultaneous blogging-eating-caffeinating sound a bit nightmarish. Computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno of the University of Washington says my brain could get hacked mid-bagel!

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?

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.

“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.”

via The next hacking frontier: Your brain? – CNN.com.

I hope Obama’s future Cybersecurity Commander read this article too.