Bitcoiners and crypto enthusiasts often boast how they can protect their Bitcoin with their own memories. They do so by memorizing the 12-word seedphrase created when they spun up their digital asset wallet.
These so-called brainwallets make it so that, so long as the seed is not recorded anywhere on paper or otherwise, the bitcoins might be considered as held only in the seedphrase holder’s mind—conventionally considered one of the safest ways to keep your Bitcoin password private.
Brainwallets are generally thought of as impractical, (due to the infallibility of the human mind) though they might come in handy during extreme situations, such as fleeing a country due to a political crisis.
However, thanks to AI, storing bitcoins and other digital assets in a brainwallet may no longer be practical for those who need the option the most.
Criminals could use new mind-reading technology based on AI for a variety of unsultry ends, including for espionage, blackmail, or coercion. Hackers could potentially gain access even to sensitive information stored in a person’s mind.
All this has been revealed by a couple studies demonstrating that mind reading technology has the ability to steal passwords and other sensitive information straight out of the heads of computer users.
Two studies in particular raise concern. In a University of Alabama study, BCI headsets were able to successfully guess the random pins and passwords typed by the subjects. With this technology or similar, hackers could compromise a BCI and thereby improve the likelihood of obtaining a victim’s credentials.
In a different study by the University of Washington, researchers focused on remote data collection. The researchers used subliminal messages in the corner of a game screen and used electroencephalography (EEG) to analyze a response. Researchers ultimately concluded an EEG, which records brain activity, could retrieve an uncomfortable amount of personal information about people.
Using the same technology, hackers would be able to steal passwords through brain signals when individuals type or think about their passwords. They would have no need for traditional hacking methods like phishing or malware.
Mind-reading technology can decipher the sequence of characters that make up a password by tapping into the subconscious thoughts of an individual and monitoring the brain’s response to stimuli related to password creation, like visual cues or prompts. Certain parts of the brain light up as neurons fire and the AI can learn to associate regions of the brain with even letters.
This new attack vector renders useless traditional methods of protecting passwords, such as encryption or two-factor authentication. Bitcoiners need to take greater measures than ever before to protect their privacy, including thoughts, memories, and of course their Bitcoin holdings.
In the future, biometric authentication, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, may offer a more secure solution as they are based on unique physical characteristics rather than easily-intercepted brain signals.
Non-invasive systems, called semantic decoders, are state of the art when it comes to mind reading technology. These can translate into text a person’s brain activity while they are told a story or thinking about telling a story to someone else. For now, these systems are only accurate approximately fifty percent of the time, but quickly improving.
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/brain-scan-ai-chatgpt-thoughts-b2330628.html
Kadan Stadelmann
Kadan Stadelmann is a blockchain developer, operations security expert and Komodo Platform’s chief technology officer. His experience ranges from working in operations security in the government sector and launching technology startups to application development and cryptography. Kadan started his journey into blockchain technology in 2011 and joined the Komodo team in 2016.
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