Episode 121 – Looking into a black mirror: What hackers could do with your memories – #KLNext Series

Interview with Laurie Pycroft, Oxford University with Denis Makrushin & Dmitry Galov of Kaspersky Lab.

If you think that cyber threats targeting your body and your mind is something that belongs in the future, or that being able to retain and share your memories forever is a just something from a dystopian television series. Then think again. Connected deep brain stimulation devices already exist to help sufferers of many neurological disorders, and this fundamental technology will eventually enable memory enhancement, implantation and more. Even today, connected medicine is creating an online-ecosystem for monitoring patients, tuning implants, remote diagnostic (telemedicine) or simply for collecting the data for future treatments. But any new pioneering technology, like ‘magic’, has another side – a dark side. In this case, the black magic could allow for the manipulation, control and abuse of your data.

In their collaborative research, Kaspersky Lab and Oxford University researchers examine cyber vulnerabilities of current and the emerging future of implantable things. Implications of memory control and external access creates opportunities for empathy, entertainment and legacy but also for use by law enforcement, abuse by repressive regimes, exploitation and other cyber threats from nation states and criminals, as well as mass manipulation of groups. Importantly, guidelines and regulations around implants and new generation devices with update-able firmware will be needed and not yet observed, there is potential for ‘in the wild’ mass attacks on implant human populations.

Recorded October 30 at  Kaspersky Lab Next Conference, Barcelona, Spain. #KLNext

Apologies for the sound quality (echo).