Brainwaves Can Be Used By Hackers to Guess Passwords

Consumers today are really fond of EEG headsets or electroencephalograph headsets. A team of researchers said that EEG headsets need a tight security as hackers can use it to steal passwords. The study was done by researchers present at Alabama University at Birmingham.

Only handful of these headsets is available in market. Their price ranges from $150 to $800. EEG headsets are advertised and designed in a way that users can use their brain to control robotic toys and video games. These games and toys were developed to be controlled and played using EEG headsets.

Nitesh Saxena, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Ph.D. student Ajaya Neupane and former master's student Md Lutfor Rahman did a research on EEG headsets. They found that any person wearing a headset who was playing a video game and then paused the game to log in into a bank account were at a higher risk of having their passwords and other crucial data stolen. This stealing was performed by any malicious software program.

By: Bhavna Sharma

Content: www.sciencedaily.com