• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Excelitas Qioptiq banner

BATTLESPACE Updates

   +44 (0)77689 54766
   

  • Home
  • Features
  • News Updates
  • Company Directory
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media Pack 2022

SYMANTEC’S CYBER SYMPOSIUM

March 3, 2011 by

SYMANTEC’S CYBER SYMPOSIUM – ‘SCARY STUFF’- ALL IN THE MIND
By Yvonne Headington

03 Mar 11. The brain computer interface (BCI) will be a “major part of the future of the internet” according to Richard Aldrich, Professor of International Security at Warwick University. Addressing Symantec’s Cyber Symposium, held in London on 23 February, Professor Aldrich pointed out that organisations such as the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) in the US have been funding research into BCI since the 1970s but technological breakthroughs are now happening all the time.

The term BCI is often used to cover rudimentary systems that read brainwaves as well as those that connect to the nervous system (such as limb implants). Systems that connect to the cortex of the brain however are “highly controversial”. Work in this field is mainly being pioneered within the medical community but such systems also have potential military applications. “Some of this stuff has been going on for a while” says Professor Aldrich “but I don’t think people are joining the dots. The brain is the new frontier of military research”.

Battlefield Cybernetics

One particular area of interest is the development of silent communications for front line troops. Last year the US Army Research Office awarded the University of California at Irvine a $4 million contract to research synthetic telepathy or ‘thought helmets’ based on the decoding of EEG (electroencephalograph) brain signals.

The “most scary stuff” according to Professor Aldrich, is probably the development of hybrid cybernetic organisms. Essentially, it is relatively easier to wire-up electronic systems to primitive organisms, such as insects, than it is to the complex human brain. DARPA’s HI-MEMS (Hybrid Insect – Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) programme, for instance, is aimed at developing machine-insect interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside an insect at the larva stage of metamorphosis.

Since insects also come with their own engines and navigation system, they have the potential for providing ideal miniature surveillance platforms that can be controlled remotely – and eventually armed. Research into cybernetic organisms is at an early stage but Professor Aldrich says that: “we are probably seeing deployable reconnaissance creatures now”. Ten years down the line there will be “swarms of robo-insects on the battlefield”.

Protecting Information

Some pretty scary statistics, on the more familiar threat to computer-based information security, were presented by Doctor Chris Hankin, Director of the Institute for Security Science and Technology at Imperial College London. 75% of enterprises experienced some form of cyber attack during 2009, according to Symantec research, while 60% of exposed ‘entities’ were compromised by hacking attacks. Identity theft alone costs the UK an estimated £1.2 billion each year ( compared with $50 billion in the US). Although cyber security has tended to focus on technical and cultural solutions, new ways of understanding and tackling the threat are beginning to emerge.

The US Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) is currently investing in several areas of research in support of the Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative (CNCI). These areas include: cyber economics (to gain a better understanding of the financial incentive to commit cyber attacks); digital provenance (tracking and authenticating where data comes from); hardware-enabled trust (revising the way hardware is designed to improve resilience); moving-target defence (changing a system’s attack surface, for instance by ensuring that the profile of a website constantly changes in order to make it less susceptible to attack) and nature-inspired cyber health (learning from immunology to improve artificial systems’ ability to resist and recover from viruses).

Dr Hankin also drew attention to UK efforts to combat cyber threats through the adoption of a Cyber

Primary Sidebar

Advertisers

  • qioptiq.com
  • Exensor
  • TCI
  • Visit the Oxley website
  • Visit the Viasat website
  • Blighter
  • SPECTRA
  • InVeris
  • Britbots logo
  • Faun Trackway
  • Systematic
  • CISION logo
  • ProTEK logo
  • businesswire logo
  • ProTEK logo
  • ssafa logo
  • DSEi
  • Atkins
  • IEE
  • EXFOR logo
  • KME logo
Hilux DVD2022 GlobalMilSat

Contact Us

BATTLESPACE Publications
Old Charlock
Abthorpe Road
Silverstone
Towcester NN12 8TW

+44 (0)77689 54766

BATTLESPACE Technologies

An international defence electronics news service providing our readers with up to date developments in the defence electronics industry.

Recent News

  • EXHIBITIONS AND CONFERENCES

    July 1, 2022
    Read more
  • VETERANS UPDATE

    July 1, 2022
    Read more
  • MANAGEMENT ON THE MOVE

    July 1, 2022
    Read more

Copyright BATTLESPACE Publications © 2002–2022.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you continue to use the website, we'll assume you're ok with this.   Read More  Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT