Ingrained In The Brain: New "Brainprints" Security Metric Proven 100% Accurate

We've all seen a spy movie where someone's fingerprint-scan is needed to access an important area, and they end up forced to scan in at gunpoint, or simply having their finger lopped off to fulfill the invaders' needs.  And even retinal scans could possibly be faked with the right medical information and digital technology.  However, the latest security is key is stashed somewhere very safe:  inside your skull.

When your brain is your password, is your cap the Caps Lock?
(Image courtesy techcresendo.com.)

According to nakedsecurity.sophos.com, recent tests have proven "brainprinting" technology to be 100% effective at identifying unique users and granting them security access thanks to this information.

Using electroencephalogram (EEG) scans of various humans' heads, scientists were able to deduce unique patterns in which the brain's neurons fired in response to certain terms.  Each word, when flashed for under a second, imbued its own brain-spanning tracks through the users' grey matter, the pathway of which was then recorded and later used for authentication of the specific person.

By focusing solely on the region of the brain that reads and recognizes words, the scientists were able to eliminate any interloping "chatter" going on during the rest of the mind's business-as-usual.  This allowed them to zero in on the desired authentication indicators.

"OK, every time it lights up yellow, let Bill into the nuke lab.
If anything else lights up, have him arrested for using meth."
(Image courtesy tek-think.com.)

The researchers, based out of the Basque Center for Cognition as well as Binghamton University, showed a group of EEG-strapped volunteers 500 different images for half of a second apiece, and recorded the results.  The brainprints were distinct enough to identify a single person out of a group of 30, 100% of the time.

Binghamton professor of psychology Sarah Laszlo explained this neatly, saying, "When you take hundreds of these images, where every person is going to feel differently about each individual one, then you can be really accurate in identifying which person it was who looked at them just by their brain activity."

Most intriguingly, the "nonvolitional" brain response to each image means its impact on you is so decisive, you're not even aware you made a decision about it.  Your reaction to say, an English bulldog in a silly costume, is already apparent in your brainframe, and won't be altered neuronally.  However, were that brainprint to be "stolen" (somehow compromised due to your reaction), you could "reset" it by changing your mind about the image.

"My brainprint used to think this was adorable, but after the break-in
I had to reset it as a remembrance of yet another manifestation of Catholicism's daily oppression."
(Image courtesy amazon.com.)

Best of all, were the user under major stress (such as during a robbery where they are being forced to use their mental "code" to crack into something), it could negatively affect the brainprint enough to render it useless.

While the technology is still in development, it hints at a more hack-proof future where literally putting your mind to something will be a key feature of augmented security.

May the path of your neurons flow functionally.
(Image courtesy brainprint.ch.)