Slashdot Mirror
Your Thoughts Are Your Password
Vitaly Friedman writes "Scientists hope that mind-reading computers will one day replace typed passwords, making fingerprint readers and retina scans obsolete. Skeptics say don't count on it. From the article: 'Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, are exploring the possibility of a biometric security device that will use a person's thoughts to authenticate her or his identity. Their idea of utilizing brain-wave signatures as pass-thoughts is based on the premise that brain waves are unique to each individual. Some researchers believe the difference might just be enough to create a system that allows you to log in with your thoughts.'"
...so my computer won't let me use it when I'm stoned or tripped out :-/
:'-(
Gonna have to get a standalone CD player and ditch winamp and it's pretty visual plugins
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Wait, did I just say that out loud ?
Why do I suspect there will be quite a few folks out there with not particularly complex passwords?
So, most fourteen-year-old boys' accounts could be cracked simply by thinking about breasts?
-Stephen
I know my first thought password wil be along the lines of:
"If you don't let me into this computer right now, I'm going to throw you out of the window."
The Urgent-use chip that typically prevents access to a technology when the user is in desperate need, will be in direct conflict with the new thought reading password-chip. The upcoming internal struggle in computers will be interesting to watch, but a pain to support.
Oh You POS
Scientists also hope that soon breakthroughs in the field of Artificial Intelligence will give rise to a new race of machine intelligences, who will selflessly do all our work for us, freeing us for lives of leisure (and, incidentally, not murder all of us or make us into batteries).
Scientists also hope that soon they will identify the Dishonesty Gene, so that they may excie it from humanity's DNA, creating a race of perfectly honest people who no longer need to safeguard their systems with passwords.
Scientists also hope that soon they will be able to transport our consciousnesses into vast computers, giving each member of humanity a lifespan of eons and a godlike existence.
Me...I just want my goddamned flying car. That's all.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Yeah, you heard me right.
I for one, welcome our mind-reading computer overlords. Can't wait til MS gets a hold of mind reading technology. I am sure it will be totally secure...
*puts on blue turban and takes an envelope*
Dumber than a brick.
*rips open envelope to read what's inside*
What you call a person that can't give their 'mind password.'
-- Bridget
I deal with users all the time, and there is no WAY this'll work...There is no software ever written that can distinguish one blank slate from another.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
fMRI xperiments have consistently shown that people are not able to consciously control activity (average firing rates) in local networks within the brain. Since all brain scans pick up mean field electrical activity (and, unless you are willing to stab yourself in the brain with micro-electrodes, always will), it will be impossible to create a unique thought pattern signature that is consistently reproducable.
What would suck is if someone's passing thought would unlock your door! With all those random thoughts in the atmosphere...
Life is about being a Phoenix!
If you don't want to take the time, the article basically says, "this would be a really cool idea, but it's not ready for prime time, and it's too expensive, and it's too unwieldy, and there are already cheaper, better, easier alternatives.
From the article:
There's going to be a lot of people having a bad hair day. For once, being bald holds an advantage.
They'll have to crowbar my tinfoil helmet from my cold dead head first!!!!
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Did someone just skim the article and think that someone thought you can read your thoughts?? Did someone instantl think of 1984?? That's not what they are suggesting. It's just a gage to the reaction to certain stimuli like how people react to the color red. Aparently everyone's reaction is different.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
This "thought password" is just another biometric, except one which even the actual owner can't be certain he can reproduce at will. If a sensor can non-invasively read your brain activity to open the door, then another sensor can non-invasively read your brain activity to try to reproduce the signature by fraud. It may or may not turn out to be easy to train a bunch of random lab biomass to reproduce a particular "thought." Lastly, a password is something that can be lent to authorized parties or bequeathed when you're no longer around. A biometric in general cannot. In some circumstances, this can be a good thing or a problem. A lawyer or boss can be the "executor" in your absense, but some situations are best when there is no proxy or executor middleman.
[
Basically every guy's password will be "boobies"?
Mine will be Natalie Portman, naked and petrified.
Sweet!
From the article:
Their idea of utilizing brain-wave signatures as "pass-thoughts" is based on the premise that brain waves are unique to each individual. Even when thinking of the same thing, the brain's measurable electrical impulses vary slightly from person to person. Some researchers believe the difference might just be enough.
One big problem is that while each person's EEG may be slightly different from the next's while "thinking the same thing" (don't even get me started on the problems with that phrase!), there is also a tremendous amount of variability in brain activity each time the same person engages in the "same" mental activity. Which is why normally when you are measuring EEG response to a psychological event, you measure each person doing it many, many times. The idea that you can identify a person with a single measurement seems pretty far-fetched to me. Especially with EEG where there are so many "noise" factors that influence the measurement (did sweat change on the scalp? did the person's hair move? did they "think the password" at the same speed this time?). I am very skeptical that this will be the best way to identify someone.
Will never work mainly because people often get stressed, undergo trauma and other general issues that cause brain patterns to change throughout our day to day lives not to mention our lifetime.
Should a traumatic event happen, a users brainwaves generally change... always in the short term and often long term as well. How will a computer be able to tell who we are if our brains are always in a state of flux.
The onyl way they could do this is if they determined a type of 'brainwave DNA' which doesn't change but if different enough to differentiate each of us.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Yay. yet another biometric id that fails to address the most important feature of passwords. namely that they can be changed when compromised.
ok, it appears that if, in the next 40 years, this becomes possible, there should be a way to change the brain pattern if one becomes compromised, but the whole thing seems needlessly complicated.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
that once the digital representation is compromised, it is not possible to generate a new biometric. AIUI, every biometric device translates the chosen bioetric into some digital representation (after all, everything is just 1's and 0's to a computer). If this is compromissed, you are sunk. I suppose that precautions, like salting and other things to prevent a replay attack, could help. But in the end, if my passowrd is compromised, I can set a new one. If my eyeball's digital representation is compromised, then I can't generate a new eyeball.
:Password please.
:Omlet du fromage.
:Password incorrect.
:(angry) Omlet du fromage!
:Password incorrect.
:OMLET DU FROMAGE!!!!
:Password incorrect. The lab will self destruct in 10...9...8..
:(urgently and panic stricken)OMLET DU FROMAGE!!! Omlet du fromage!!!
:7..6..5..4..
:Omlet *sob* du fromage!! *more sobbing*
:3..2..1... *lab explodes*
The lesson here, is that all it will take is one night of subliminal foreign language learning, and you're screwed.
Has anybody seen that movie? It's a classic. Passwords for data stored into your brain implants were pictures.
In the case of our hero, the password was the picture of a specific woman. Unfortunately the overload corrupted half of the image. With the help of a dolphin (whose intelligence was better than a genius') in a VR world, Johnny managed to get the missing half by mirroring the good half. After the password was obtained, the data could be released and they saved the world.
I loved this movie (despite the primitive graphics). It's a cyberpunk classic.
So, when my domain account pwd expires JUST AFTER I've finally sync'd all my other comapny passwords to the last one, my new password will be 'pissshitbollocks' , only it won't 'cos that password doesn't contain any fuckin' special characters or numbers. Great.
so when i have an off day, it's gonna be made even worse cause I can't login to work? ;P
or will this mandate some sort of drug to keep our brains 'normal' so we can use our computers....
Gozer: The Choice is made!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Whoa! Ho! Ho! Whoa-oa!
Gozer: The Traveller has come!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Nobody choosed anything!
[turns to Egon]
Dr. Peter Venkman: Did YOU choose anything?
Dr. Egon Spengler: No.
Dr. Peter Venkman: [to Winston] Did YOU?
Winston Zeddemore: My mind is totally blank.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I didn't choose anything.
[long pause, Peter, Egon and Winston all look at Ray]
Dr Ray Stantz: I couldn't help it. It just popped IN there.
Dr. Peter Venkman: [angrily] What? What just popped in there?
Dr Ray Stantz: I... I... I tried to think...
Dr. Egon Spengler: LOOK!
[they all look over one side of the roof]
Dr Ray Stantz: No! It CAN'T be!
Dr. Peter Venkman: What is it?
Dr Ray Stantz: It CAN'T be!
Dr. Peter Venkman: What did you do, Ray?
Winston Zeddemore: Oh, shit!
[they all see a giant cubic white head topped with a sailor hat, Peter looks at Ray]
Dr Ray Stantz: [somberly] It's the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
--From the IMDB.
Cthulhu Saves.
that old saying from some research somewhere that men think about sex six times per hour...
:)
well, the law of averages.. sort of like how the timed salts worked with old crack program (people were most likely to create a new password in the morning so it limited the number of salts to a couple hour window which made cracking much faster)...
sounds insecure to me
but then, what I am thinking about?
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
If you want to retrieve identity from the human brain, a structural scan will do much better than a functional scan. The pattern of folds and grooves in the cortex is highly individualized, and relatively static. Functional activity is much more dynamic and inconsistent over time. I can, for example, recognize my own brain fairly easily because I have an unusual shape to my precentral sulcus on the left side.
"Donuts...."
Average story posts drop from hundreds to dozens.
If this succeeds, the next step will be music/books/whatever that will only play if the right person is using it.
Wait, that would mean he can use the media in multiple places/devices, this isn't restrictive enough. Never mind.
Didn't the Russians already perfect this in the novel Firefox? Thought patterns were used to control the missiles off of the Mig-[whatever it was]. I can remember the movie version where Clint Eastwood's handler explained to him that he would have to "Think in Russian" to get the weapons control systems to work.
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
All other technical arguments for why it can't work aside, this is the biggest bugaboo. You're going to age; your faculties will age as well. Recall is iffy at best even when you're in a "normal" state, let's leave out being stoned, drunk, angry, depressed, etc. Just the simple aging of your brain is going to make this problematic. Beyond actually "forgetting" your password, there will be the distotrions of brain function that come with senile dementia or Alzheimer's Disease, not to mention strokes or heart attacks.
This is best relegated back to science fiction until we know a lot more about how the brain works as a unit and until we can measure brain activity accurately.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
So some time in the future will we be looking at RFID like use, but instead of holding a small amount of information or a key linked to a database - it'll be everything we are.
A few bad examples:
- good afternoon MR S. B. ODSWORTH, your wifes birthday is coming up next week: we've just delivered some flowers and charged your account, along with a note reminding her to phone the doctor regarding your incontenance.
- A new 'thought-crime' bill now means you are safe from injury/burgulary etc. with the criminal being arrested before they commit anything.
- Foolproof, unless you value your privacy, have severe OCD/psycosis/turettes etc.
A few good examples:
- With this innovative device you'll know why your wife/girlfriend is in a mood.
- No more handheld gadgets, just think about sending a message while in range of a BNAP (Brain Network Access Point) and it'll be done (and charged to your account).
- No need to negotiate in broken Spranglish the meal you want at the burgerking hover-thru.
Yeah I'm exaggerating a bit and it's still a long way off, but just be sure that when it finally does come around marketing and government people will find many (ab)uses for it.
OMGPonieSlashdot...
If you change your mind, does your computer become and expensive brick?
-
The problem with biometrics is that most people can't easily change them if/when their metric is compromised. And yes that WILL happen. Just look at fingerprints for example. I believe the best way to have security is to use something like RSA's SecurID technology. If you lose your keychain, you just get a new one. It uses a rolling code that's only valid for a short time. Nothing to remember, and it's more random then most users's passwords could ever be. http://rsasecurity.com/node.asp?id=1157
Heh, any poor computer that tries to read my brain will most likely fry itself rather than having to see my thoughts =P
Password retrieval = lobotomy. j/k of course.
Grandfather: "Where you youngins off to?"
Kids: "BAWDriving"
Grandfather: "huh, what is that, some new type of BMW?"
Kids: "(old people) No, it's beta/alpha wave driving. We go around getting peoples' passwords as they think them."
Grandfather: "In my day, we went a wardriving looking for people stupid enough, or maybe even nice enough til the laws kicked in that is, to give us wide open access to their WiFi. Free surfing on someone else's net connection. Boy those were the days. I got a lot of tail doing that too."
Grandmother is kitchen: "Yeah, downloaded tail"
Kids/Grandfather: "Whatever"
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
...about any of you, but I like to keep my thoughts and actions seperate; it keeps me out of trouble.
"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." - S. G. Colette
The only completely secure system is theoretically the entire universe (a closed system)*. It would be nice if someone would be willing to get to work on a proof that even a single-input system is insecure. If proven then it can be said that insecurity is a property of the system. What is not, however, is what information is actually stored. As it has been there is a strangely vast majority of people who think that security is possible ... on the other hand there are some others who don't really care about security. Look, of course your information is insecure. You have your financial records in a blatantly obvious spreadsheet fileformat. Take a hint from video games: hide the prizes, do not say those [special] prizes exist. The worst idea I have seen is the password prompt itself. The better "security" system would not even tell the user that there is a password needed to access more information .. much less show that there is "security" mechanisms present. The successful security system will setup something that looks like the Prize and completely misguide the mallacious user away from the important information. (Game references: Banjo Kazooie / Banjo Tooie, Super Mario 64, and probably many of the older games I have the misfortune of missing.)
Oops, I think I broke the security system protecting this concept. Well. That's no good. Thoughts? (Heh, my second mistake.)
* though there are a few who think that blackholes are seeding other universes.
~ kanzure
[This message brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.]
Karma: NaN
Question: If a device can be made to differentiate thoughts, and if a computer interface is eventually connected to one of these such that a user thinks certain commands which the computer detects, and if such an interface becomes widespread, then could it happen that while walking down the street someone in the habit of thinking in terms of the computer would be opening his thoughts to anyone listening? If you "think to type", what happens if you accidentally think your bank password, insults, luggage combination, or worse and Malory's computer picks up? Possible?
.. if only it had USB.
...between my thought password and the parental controls I'll have in place to keep nieces and nephews from using Uncle Glas' computer for immoral purposes. Probably never be able to get into the bloody thing again.
I came, I saw, I left. It looked better in the brochure.
I'm not too sure since I'm not a big pro in the brain waves department but heh, that would be cool.
If someone said its possible its because they saw the beginning of a way to do this.
Sure it looks funky but heh... I can still read that famous phrase :
"256k of RAM outta be enough for everyone...."
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
Your password is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
Seriously though, if you really want your 'passthought' to be secure, you should make it something like b00b135. Nobody would ever guess that.
--
This sig intentionally left blank
Kids these days have no attention span whatsoever, so this would be the ultimate computer security for parents...
"The password is a dewy meadow..." *imagines* "...with trees swaying in the wind... and the sun coming up over the hori.. OOOH SHINY BALL!!!"
On the bright site, password reset requests will be significantly more fun.
This really redefines "forgetting your password." Wouldn't this be a nightmare for technical support? How would they help manage/track user's passwords? Another thing I think of is there are many occasions where I have to change a user's password to log into their machine, so would there be a generic IT password? Somewhat of a master key? I could see this causing many more security issues...
How does it change many dyslexics to take a lightbulb?
like this:
Pardon ma'am, whatever you do dont look at this red light and think of your password.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
I totally agree. Why are they trying to find new biometrics when none of the traditional hurdles associated with existing biometrics haven't been overcome? Like if it's compromised, how do you change e.g., your fingerprint or retina? And now, if someone is able to create a device to mimic your thoughts, what then? "Think different"? Thanks, Apple.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
God help the individual who just got a divorce the day before!
...doesn't this mean that people will then simply cut off your head and have that scanned?
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
every fifteen seconds and eventually, you see the actual object of your desire; after she's out on thirty pounds, sagging from a brace of kids, and fifteen years older.
You'd never be able to to get rid of the 'reality overlaid onto memory' and your pass 'thought' would simply stop working.
I'm sure I rather have the computer look at my finger prints or, for more secure applications, look me in the eye.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
... what happens if you don't exactly feel like yourself one day?
(The scary thing is that this joke might actually turn out to be a valid point!)
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
The idea of pass-thoughts is nifty and all, but seems overly complicated and prone to error. This piece did remind me of a previous article in Wired (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.01/lying.ht ml?pg=5) that covers work being done on a a portable fMRI using near-infrared light. Put the two together, and rather than a password, the authentication scheme can merely be a truthful response to "Are you really so-and-so?"
Even if one can get beyond the variability problems described above, brainwaves are a fundamentally noisy signal. They are the aggregate effect of possibly millions of neurons firing at once. When running noisy signals through any sort of classifier, you get two problems: false positives and false negatives. False positives, where the system mistakes somebody else for you, are absolutely deadly in a password system. So you have to make the classifier software really picky to avoid false positives. Of course this means that you get lots of false negatives, where you think the right thing and the computer does not recognize you. Imagine sitting down at the computer and having it essentially tell you "Sorry, I can't let you in because you're not thinking about exactly the same elephant that you were thinking about yesterday. Please come back when you remember exactly what that elephant looked like".
Classifiers operating on noisy input data are good for sorting out stuff where an occasional error (false positive OR false negative) is OK. Password matching is NOT such an application.
Skeptics say don't count on it.
What? Were they supposed to say something else?
So if you're attempting to design a secure system, or write a secure piece of code, and you are "thinking like a hacker," in order to identify vulnerabilities, your system will detect this and lock you out? LMAO
Chums up, let's do this!
...is my passport. Verify ME?
They all think the same things anyway..back to drawing board for this methinks.
...etc
And I for One welcome our mind-reading auto-authenticating overlords. * emits smug snigger from flabby face *
Anyone build a beowolf cluster of these in Soviet Russia, whilst drinking Kool-aid? In an ad-hominem fashion?
I need this now. But only for logging into PokerStars!
I came, I saw, I left. It looked better in the brochure.
Whatever happened to the ability to confirm a person's identity by their typing pattern? Brain scans sound overly complicated compared to something simple like this. I thought the typing pattern check was accurate to within 95% or something like that. It would be purely software based but nothing ever came of it. Seems like a much better idea than this.
Developers: We can use your help.
see the paratwa trilogy.
w ww.bucksworld.com/seven/bbs/bbs.mv%3Fda_username%3 D%26module%3Dview%26viewid%3D85%26row%3D201+%22mne monic+cursor%22&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=7
and also http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:N5jbPFyzB0kJ:
reminds me of that nasrudin story
This brings a whole new meaning to: "can you reset my password?"
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
"Researchers at Carleton University...."
Go Ravens!
boy, are you in the right place. Here's a cup of coffee; we'll be starting in a few minutes.
So you're saying it's my thoughts. Then every male under 28 has password 'Jessica Simpson', and everyone over it has 'Raquel Welch'. And this improves security how?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Just replace "car" with "computer":
t s/jeddk2/final/ee498h.htm
http://www.ee.washington.edu/conselec/Sp96/projec
In light of the fact we all only have one thought.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
"I'm having a bad day at work, can't even log in!"
Ahh, yes.. Carleton University... where the K stands for Quality. ( I suppose it loses somthing when it's written down..)
So if I showed up at Fort Knox's vault door with a thousand monkeys thinking random thoughts.... Wheeeeeee!
LOL Nice reference to one of my favorite movies.... Sneakers
Quiet everyone, I can't even hear myself think...
"I want a Peanut"
That's better!
-M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
I think therefore I am.
There is no way I'm taking off my tinfoil hat every time I need to enter a password.
Because there'll never be a buffer overflow with my thoughts. Hell, an underflow doesn't seem absurd either.
my password is b00bies..doh!
...you must think in Russian.
I'm cinciplegic, I don't think straight.
All of the technological implausibility of this aside (hard to reproduce unique brainwaves, etc.), this suffers from all of the other problems biometrics are prone to. . .
Can't get into the system? Find the guy who can, and either steal then digitally duplicate his brainwaves (similar technology as this). Unlike a password, you can't change how your body works when it's compromised.
Or, there's the cheaper version. . . kidnap person with access and march them into the system at gunpoint. Sure, it might be a little harder to coordinate than, say, stealing a hand or something, but if you want the data bad enough, you'll go to any length.
Now, if you want to use this in combination with a password and/or changing token, you're on the right track, but it still sounds like much ado about nothing.
~EEE~
If you want true security and no effort on the part of the operator (like remembering passwords), just do retinal scans from the camera on the laptop. That way, you can log in with a system that we know can uniquely identify people. Not like in the article which is just theory. We can also do this with no effort. Just have the laptop scan your eyes when you look into the monitor (using the apple telescreen monitors). It's very easy.
No Sigs!
This reminds of me a book Vectors by Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell where a scientist uses something like this to determine a fingerprint for every human being. His research wound up finding a link between the soul and the mind. I wonder if such a device will cause problems for any religions? At least it doesn't draw blood.
Does that mean I can't log on if I'm drunk?
Maybe that's a good thing.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
So all I will have to worry about is people stealing my thoughts ?
Well what do you know???? When I was there, our pride was highest alcoholic consumption per capita of any school in Canada. Whew hew, times change.
Mean what you say...say what you mean.
Bank Teller: Hmm.... We don't seem to have your retina scan, your fingerprint, or your colonic map on file.
Fry: Yeah, well, I did open the account over a thousand years ago.
Welcome to not getting access to your password protected stuff when you're drunk, high, or have suffered a stroke or other brain injury.
Friends don't let friends send email drunk.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
and they'll marry computers. Still no hope for slashdoters.
Or would it be just another crypto Wunderwaffe suitable for more cronyism in the War on Terrer, Drugs, Boobies, et al.?
FTA:
A successful login would only occur when you are able to identify your password by thinking "yes" to the letters or pictures that form it in sequence -- like a mental game of 20 questions.
Or like, I don't know, thinking of the letters and typing them on a keypad? That method sure sounds like a mental equivalent to hunt-and-peck on a keyboard without a backspace key.
And, like other posters have written before me, I believe that passwords would indeed become more simple. The very act of typing in a password is a physical activity that will fasten your password deeper into your memory, because more parts of your brain have to deal with the act, Which in turn means you can memorize stronger passwords, i.e. longer ones and not from a dictionary.
Vidal is more optimistic about a simpler form of mind reading, in which the computer provides a stimulus, then measures the brain's response. Such "event-related responses," or ERPs, to color flashes or specific sounds tend to produce brain signals that are different with each individual, but nearly identical when repeated on the same person. "ERPs could be used for biometric identification," says Vidal.
Was anyone else reminded of a certain N. Stephenson novel when reading this?
And finally, whatever can be measured with digital devices, can in principle be recreated to fool these devices. Faking brainwaves may not be as blunt as cutting off a finger and prying out an eyeball, but there's usually a way to fool the system, no? And if it's just about social engineering or cracking the layer that comes after the actual scanning device.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
My password will still be 1234.
You seem to be joking, but I think that's a good point. My first thought on this was of how repeated meditation is known to improve brainwave patterns in a permanent way. Possibly, any big change in philosophy might too.
I can't remember what I'm supposed to think, and when I called tech support they just told me I'm not thinking the right thoughts. :(
now i can't log into anything. :(
'sig' deleted due to the stupidity of it's 'nature'
Why the mod down? Obligatory reference to Brave New World, not so?
All those people who never had an original thought in their life are going to have someone else's IP as their password.
Squirrel!
I can imagine this conversation.
GF: "How do I log into your computer"
Me: "Just think about what I'm always thinking about"
GF: "Didn't work"
Me: "Try from behind"
First, I don't they are attempting to read actual thoughts. That will fairly difficult given the complexity of "wiring" - a few billions of neurons each with an average of thousands of connections. However those connections are reasonable stable as a whole and given a known external excitation such as stroboscopic light or even sound it might be possible to detect certain patterns in a EEG signal or MRI which are unique to an individual.
....
... and that cannot be reproduced. I will let you figure that out :)
However, if this is developed for the good cause so the "thief" will have access to this technology. And as other biometrics the problem here is these are easy to duplicate. Brain waves might be only slightly difficult but fingerprints or iris scanning you can easily get them from everywhere. Try door handles for fingerprints or a good picture on the street or through a good telescope. Not to mention that some could install fake machines for fools to make a reliable copy
So I think this technology is doomed - is more like an interesting gadget but no good for the industry. Interesting to do research on and might yield some results which could help somewhere else for the money some fools put in this approach.
The good old password still rocks in the field. In my opinion there is only one way to uniquely identify a living creature
Reading brainwaves is like counting on Bluetooth as being a local network that can't be examined from far away. It's like counting on a license plate as not readable from a satellite.
When they make sensors that can easily read the pattern of your thought to log you in, guess what... you're broadcasting that thought. Literally. If it can be measured, it can be measured from farther away than anticipated.
This potential new technology has the same old security flaws.
tterns (lord knows I've tried...)...
Nope... stick with what ya remember... you can change that on a whim...
Why can't
There is an odd thing about biometrics that make me shutter at the thought of a 'biometrics only' authentication scheme for any machine.
you see it might be harder to compromise your biometric identity, but the problem is if someone ever successfully accomplishes it, which people will, you can't change your fingerprints or brain patterns.
That is why biometrics should always remain only a part of what you need to authenticate to a system.
I was taught when we studied security that there have been since roman times only 3 recognized ways to establish a trusted relationship.
1) something you have ( like a key card)
2) something you know ( like a password , pin or phrase )
3) something you are ( like a biometric)
The best anyone can do is to use one or more such things from those 3 categories. The better systems use at least one thing from each.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
Easier and probably just as unique would be to use acoustic, GSR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_skin_respons e>
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
"God this itches! I wonder who I got it from. Probably that skank that I gave a ride to the gas station. Last time I do someone a favor. Oh God! They heard me! Oh god! I heard me! La La La La La La La La!" -Quagmire
It must be the power of NEGITIVE IONS!!
This gives new meaning to the term, "I think, therefore I am."
"... my voice is my passport, please verify me"
Well, for starters that's Nineteen Eight-Four not Brave New World, so no. Though, I do like the reference.
Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
Do you remember when ...
a "head crash" meant a problem with a hard-drive?
I can't wait for this.
If you're talking about future tech and you are going to get that invasive, you might as well carry around or implant a "super PDA/wearable server" sort of device that holds your personal digital certs[1].
Because once you have a device suitable for reading thought "macros" you can easily have a device that would help do "virtual telepathy" and "virtual telekinesis", and typical "super PDA/wearable server" functions.
You'd have photographic memory etc - just link a distinct thought pattern with the image, and the next time you think of that person it'll be easy to have the image pop up - just like part of your memory. And you can send links to those objects to your friends (given decent apps and protocols, you'd be able to have fine grained access control to your "memories" and so easily share specific objects with strangers or whole groups of them with groups of other people).
Of course if Copyright laws and other laws don't change you could end up having to pay more than a penny for your "own thoughts". And Big Brother would be pretty happy if stuff like Palladium/DRM are a core part of it.
I think people should be more careful on what they _tolerate_ now. Because they might end up being like a frog being boiled slowly.
[1] Should have more than one cert for different purposes- ID, small/volume monetary transactions, big item monetary transactions.
i guess you'll just have to recall your sexual fantasies so you can easily repeat the signatures. and maybe when some new fetish or person comes along, then you can "change" the password.
Live your life each day as if it was your last.
You can easily change your password, or generate new key-pairs and store them on your smart card or token.
And there is another important detail you should know, biometric scanners only return a TRUE/FALSE result, which isn't perfect (it compares the result to a threshold, and if it is above the threshold, it is considered that the person is the same person who enrolled the first time, otherwise - no). See this discussion about how biometric data are actually used:
The saddest poem
That would be awsome, but could they really get it to work?
Like Trusted Computing (oxymoron of the 21st Century, that one!), if it ever does fly, it'll be avoided in droves unless some government makes it compulsory...
“Our opponent is an alien starship packed with nuclear bombs. We have a protractor.” — Neal Stepnenso
All the more reason for http://www.sysadminco.com/qotd?qotd_id=128