A NEUROSECURITY PERSPECTIVE ON THE FORMATION OF INFORMATION SECURITY AWARENESS – PROPOSING A MULTI-METHOD APPROACH

In today’s digital age, in which all kinds of information can be accessed electronically at all times, organizations are under continuous pressure of keeping their information systems (IS) secure. To protect IS and information assets from insider threats, information security awareness (ISA) has been established as a crucial factor in influencing employees’ behaviour that is supportive or disruptive of IS security. But yet to date, there is still a lack of in-depth and structured understanding of the factors influencing ISA. In this research-in-progress paper, we conduct a literature review to categorize determinants of ISA into four levels of origin (individual, organizational, social-environmental, and application-specific) and identify topics that are promising for future research. We then present our planned study as an example to pursue our recommendations. In the IS security context of phishing, we aim to uncover the extent to which non-IS professionals are able to develop an eye for technical aspects of IS security and pay higher visual attention to security and fraud indicators of web browsers and e-mails after being subject to different organizational awareness-raising activities. Among a survey and literature analysis, the multi-method approach uses the objective data collection instrument of eye tracking. We expect to contribute into the nascent area of neurosecurity research by offering new insights on the effectiveness of organizational means to increase employees’ ISA

Security in Brain-Computer Interfaces: State-of-the-Art, Opportunities, and Future Challenges

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have significantly improved the patients’ quality of life by restoring damaged hearing, sight, and movement capabilities. After evolving their application scenarios, the current trend of BCI is to enable new innovative brain-to-brain and brain-to-the-Internet communication paradigms. This technological advancement generates opportunities for attackers, since users’ personal information and physical integrity could be under tremendous risk. This work presents the existing versions of the BCI life-cycle and homogenizes them in a new approach that overcomes current limitations. After that, we offer a qualitative characterization of the security attacks affecting each phase of the BCI cycle to analyze their impacts and countermeasures documented in the literature. Finally, we reflect on lessons learned, highlighting research trends and future challenges concerning security on BCIs

Privacy and Brain-Computer Interfaces

The research described in this thesis draws on three distinct fields: privacy, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), and critical theory (specifically, Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action). There are two aims. The first is to identify whether BCIs disrupt privacy, and if so, how. The second is to contribute methodological observations and insights. In meeting the first aim, two subjects are explored: privacy and BCIs. In this research, privacy is understood to take diverse and pliant forms and to be mutually instrumental in the formation of other social values and social contexts. Social contexts may be disrupted by emerging technologies, such as BCIs, which may then disrupt privacy. Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are a group of emerging technologies that interpret someone’s neural activity in order to provide control of external devices. In the literature, it has been suggested that BCIs may disrupt privacy. To the extent that privacy perpetuates other social values, this project has an emancipatory intent which places the research within the purview of critical theory. Critical theory encompasses a broad range of research practices. The research reported here applies a novel method informed by features of Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action (TCA) which was triangulated by an implementation of contextual integrity approach to studying privacy. As the TCA component of the research method is novel, the second research aim is feasible: the contribution of methodological observations and insights. A review of the literature identifies five relevant privacy concepts and four types of BCI. These are orthogonally positioned such that twenty different contexts of potential privacy disruption are considered. These contexts form hypotheses for the project’s first research question: do BCIs disrupt privacy? The method produced both quantitative and qualitative data, within which 35 indications were identified. These indications culminated in 6 knowledge contributions in the form of 2 findings, 1 design recommendation, and 3 methodological recommendations. The research data indicate that BCIs disrupt privacy because BCIs disrupt agency, fairness, self-determination, autonomy, justice, power, and to lesser extents, other values. Design and methodological recommendations are made before concluding the thesis with discussions of the potential social impact of this research, options for future research, and learning outcomes

Cyber Threats and NATO 2030: Horizon Scanning and Analysis

The book includes 13 chapters that look ahead to how NATO can best address the cyber threats, as well as opportunities and challenges from emerging and disruptive technologies in the cyber domain over the next decade. The present volume addresses these conceptual and practical requirements and contributes constructively to the NATO 2030 discussions. The book is arranged in five short parts...All the chapters in this book have undergone double-blind peer review by at least two external experts.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbook/1038/thumbnail.jp

Brain Waves, A Cultural History: Oscillations of Neuroscience, Technology, Telepathy, and Transcendence

This project proceeds from a narrow question: What, if anything, is a brain wave? Beguiling in its simplicity, this question prompts a cultural-historical investigation that spans over 150 years of science, technology, and society. Proposed in 1869, the original theory of brain waves cites etheric undulations to explain reports of apparent thought transference. Though most modern thinkers no longer believe in outright telepathy, I argue that dreams of thought transmission and other mental miracles subtly persist—not in obscure and occult circles, but at the forefront of technoscience. A hybrid of science and fiction, brain waves represent an ideal subject through which to explore the ways in which technical language shrouds spiritual dreams. Today, the phrase “brain waves” often function as shorthand for electrical changes in the brain, particularly in the context of technologies that purport to “read” some aspect of mental function, or to transmit neural data to a digital device. While such technologies appear uniquely modern, the history of brain waves reveals that they are merely the millennial incarnation of a much older hope—a hope for transmission and transcendence via the brain’s emanations

On the Dual Uses of Science and Ethics Principles, Practices, and Prospects

Ethics, humanity, techonolog

Augmentation of Brain Function: Facts, Fiction and Controversy. Volume III: From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas

The final volume in this tripartite series on Brain Augmentation is entitled “From Clinical Applications to Ethical Issues and Futuristic Ideas”. Many of the articles within this volume deal with translational efforts taking the results of experiments on laboratory animals and applying them to humans. In many cases, these interventions are intended to help people with disabilities in such a way so as to either restore or extend brain function. Traditionally, therapies in brain augmentation have included electrical and pharmacological techniques. In contrast, some of the techniques discussed in this volume add specificity by targeting select neural populations. This approach opens the door to where and how to promote the best interventions. Along the way, results have empowered the medical profession by expanding their understanding of brain function. Articles in this volume relate novel clinical solutions for a host of neurological and psychiatric conditions such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, epilepsy, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), traumatic brain injury, and disorders of consciousness. In disease, symptoms and signs denote a departure from normal function. Brain augmentation has now been used to target both the core symptoms that provide specificity in the diagnosis of a disease, as well as other constitutional symptoms that may greatly handicap the individual. The volume provides a report on the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in ASD with reported improvements of core deficits (i.e., executive functions). TMS in this regard departs from the present-day trend towards symptomatic treatment that leaves unaltered the root cause of the condition. In diseases, such as schizophrenia, brain augmentation approaches hold promise to avoid lengthy pharmacological interventions that are usually riddled with side effects or those with limiting returns as in the case of Parkinson’s disease. Brain stimulation can also be used to treat auditory verbal hallucination, visuospatial (hemispatial) neglect, and pain in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. The brain acts as a telecommunication transceiver wherein different bandwidth of frequencies (brainwave oscillations) transmit information. Their baseline levels correlate with certain behavioral states. The proper integration of brain oscillations provides for the phenomenon of binding and central coherence. Brain augmentation may foster the normalization of brain oscillations in nervous system disorders. These techniques hold the promise of being applied remotely (under the supervision of medical personnel), thus overcoming the obstacle of travel in order to obtain healthcare. At present, traditional thinking would argue the possibility of synergism among different modalities of brain augmentation as a way of increasing their overall effectiveness and improving therapeutic selectivity. Thinking outside of the box would also provide for the implementation of brain-to-brain interfaces where techniques, proper to artificial intelligence, could allow us to surpass the limits of natural selection or enable communications between several individual brains sharing memories, or even a global brain capable of self-organization. Not all brains are created equal. Brain stimulation studies suggest large individual variability in response that may affect overall recovery/treatment, or modify desired effects of a given intervention. The subject’s age, gender, hormonal levels may affect an individual’s cortical excitability. In addition, this volume discusses the role of social interactions in the operations of augmenting technologies. Finally, augmenting methods could be applied to modulate consciousness, even though its neural mechanisms are poorly understood. Finally, this volume should be taken as a debate on social, moral and ethical issues on neurotechnologies. Brain enhancement may transform the individual into someone or something else. These techniques bypass the usual routes of accommodation to environmental exigencies that exalted our personal fortitude: learning, exercising, and diet. This will allow humans to preselect desired characteristics and realize consequent rewards without having to overcome adversity through more laborious means. The concern is that humans may be playing God, and the possibility of an expanding gap in social equity where brain enhancements may be selectively available to the wealthier individuals. These issues are discussed by a number of articles in this volume. Also discussed are the relationship between the diminishment and enhancement following the application of brain-augmenting technologies, the problem of “mind control” with BMI technologies, free will the duty to use cognitive enhancers in high-responsibility professions, determining the population of people in need of brain enhancement, informed public policy, cognitive biases, and the hype caused by the development of brain- augmenting approaches