Brain Fingerprinting- Science for Security

Dr. Lawrence Farwell, Chairman and Chief Science Officer at Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories based in United States participates in Risk Roundup to discuss “Brain Fingerprinting: Science for Security”.   Overview Security is a moving target. It is an unfortunate reality today that almost all advances in science and technology pose potential ‘dual use’ risks. When risks undermine rewards, better science must provide effective protection against potential security threats. As we see currently, in cyberspace, geospace and space (CGS), we are facing massive security risks. Managing those security risks in CGS is a priority for each nation: its government, industries, `organizations and academia (NGIOA). Science can come to the rescue and be at the frontline of defense. To be able to do that, we need to unlock the secrets of the human safety, security and sustainability. What better way to do that than scientists from across nations coming together and collaborating and combining their efforts to decode the human brain. Billions of dollars are being spent across nations to map the human brain. While understanding of brain is fundamental to advance human and computational intelligence, it is also crucial to identify the security challenges we face today, in cyberspace, geospace and space (CGS). There is a hope that understanding the brain circuits, neural pathway and wiring; mapping the brain, will not only let us understand the command center, for the human nervous system better, but it will also let us into human mind to achieve security. While there are many obstacles the scientific community must overcome before they can successfully use brain science advances for safety and security of humans in cyberspace, geospace and space; advances have begun to happen. Brain Computer Interface Dr. Larry Farwell has conducted pioneering research in the field of brain-computer interfaces. He, along with his colleagues has invented the first EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI). This interface, BCI, provides a  promising science, a highly growing field of research with great promise and many potential applications. It is because of the revolution in human-computer interaction through EEG based brain-computer interface, which allows us to do many things today, which we couldn’t do so far. So why and how is brain-computer interface relevant to today’s security challenges? It is because BCI system uses brainwaves, electrical brain activity that each individual has unique, has given us the promise of potential applications that could be used by security community. The brainwaves, brain activity is measured non-invasively from the scalp. This allows communication directly from the human brain to a computer. As a result, this scientific discovery seems to be very promising and has resulted in a new technology referred to as brain fingerprinting. Why is this important? For years, neuroscientists have been trying to understand brain. The advances in understanding of human brain, will help us solve some complex challenges, that we are facing in a digital global age. While we already have understood many complex challenges, there are still many un-answered questions- * How can we use human brain as a biosensor? * How can we use human brain for secure identification? * How can we advance human intelligence? * How can we advance computational intelligence? * How can we secure borders? * How can we identify terrorists? * How can we identify criminals? It seems we are making progress and are getting closer to finding answers to some of the most challenging questions, we, the humans face today, and in the coming tomorrow. Warfare: Cyber Warfare to Traditional Warfare Cyber warfare has become very complex due to co...