#17 Deeptech Insights - Revolutionising Communication: Exploring the Potential of Brain-Machine Interface & Revolutionising Cryptography: How Emerging Technologies are Changing Data Security
Experts news analysis: this week's Top Deeptech Developments and Trends you can't miss (3/04/2023 - 7/04/2023)
THIS WEEK OUR EXPERTS EXPLORE..
1️⃣The Potential of Brain-Machine Interfaces
2️⃣The Revolution of Data Security
Revolutionizing Communication: Exploring the Potential of Brain-Machine Interface
By David Levy, Deeptech Expert
What is going on?
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are systems designed for communication between brains and various machines. They require the collection of brain signals, which are interpreted, and then outputted as commands to a machine, based on the signal received.
What does it mean?
There are several techniques to measure brain signals which may be classified into three categories:
Non-invasive: sensors (electrodes) are placed on top of a person’s scalp in order to measure electrical potentials emitted by the brain (using EEG technology), or to measure the magnetic field (using MEG technology).
Semi-Invasive: A person’s head is surgically opened and electrodes are placed directly on top of the brain (Electrocorticography, or ECoG).
Invasive: micro-electrodes are placed directly into the cortex, and measure signals from a single neuron. The invasive techniques provide highest quality signals. They are used when surgery is required for medical reasons (e.g., epilepsy) or when targeting the blind and paralyzed individuals, since neurosurgery may be risky and expensive.
Many machines for the study of the brain have been introduced in the 1990s, and ushered the field of neuroscience into its current golden age. These are all based on Maxwell’s laws of electricity and magnetism, and provide informative brain imaging signals. EEG, for instance, records electrical activity of the brain from the surface of the scalp. MEG, records small magnetic fields naturally occurring in the brain. Various types of MRIs, provide high resolution signals and rely on patterns associated with magnetic resonance in the brain. PETs, enable brain imaging by tracking micro doses of radioactive substances circulating in the brain.
Why does it matter?
💸For markets: BCI’s are changing the industry game.
Meta (Facebook) aims to significantly reduce the time it takes for us to type a message. In 2017, Meta has recruited BCI engineers to eventually create non-invasive wearable technology, which will allow us to type with the power of our minds.
Bryan Johnson, Kernel’s founder, focuses on medical BCI applications for augmenting people’s brains, to make humans smarter and healthier. Kernel is focused on improving brain signal resolution, and creating neuro-tags for better and easier signal interpretation.
Elon Musk, Neuralink’s founder, aims to enhance the brain, by eventually integrating the human brain with the digital world, using deep micro-electrodes, which would allow for rapid digital uploads and downloads, to and from the brain.
🧑🏿🤝🧑🏻For society: revolutionising healthcare by solving medical challenges.
BCIs have made it possible for quadriplegics to physically interact with the world, using their mind alone. In 2012, a quadriplegic woman was able to type a message using only her eyes’ movement. Since she cannot talk, a small chip was placed on top of her brain, connected to a computer. Her eyes’ movement was then tracked and her message translated into a typed message via a device.
In 2019, three people successfully engaged in minimal brain to brain communication, in order to help each other play a Tetris game using only their thoughts, non-invasive EEG electrodes, and an internet connection.
In 2021, two research teams at the école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a system for controlling robotic tasks “telepathically”. It was designed in the hope that tetraplegic patients will be able to carry out more day-to-day activities on their own. A machine-learning algorithm was linked to a headcap equipped with electrodes, that measure a patient’s brain activity. All the patient does is stare at the robot and thinks up instructions for it. The biggest challenge was to translate brain signals into actions performed by the robot. Machine learning was used to link a given brain signal (EEG) to a specific task. Then, the tasks were associated to individual controls, so that the robot does what its told.
🔮What’s next?
BCIs have the potential to improve human life in a variety of domains, from medicine, communication, life enhancement for the disabled, memory retention, learning improvement, next-generation gaming, and even environmental conservation.
While it’s not yet really possible to easily instruct a robot with the mind, to precisely screw bolts and swing a hammer, it is not hard to imagine a future in which we will be able to give specific instructions to super-robots with our thoughts. These could be specially designed surrogates that may go where we cannot. Hence, these would efficiently clean up radioactive waste, or mitigate spreading oil spills in the ocean. Or both.
Revolutionizing Cryptography: How Emerging Technologies are Changing Data Security
By Eden Djanashvili, Deeptech Expert
What is going on?
Do you remember the recent breach hack in Binance last October 2022? $570 million were stolen. The company’s stocks dropped and its reputation was severely damaged.
You are guessing right, digital security is becoming increasingly important in today’s digital world. Even though the practice of cryptography is an essential tool for securing data and communication, it faces several challenges in its implementation and use that need to be addressed for a continued effectiveness in data security.
What does it mean?
In today’s digital age, sensitive information such as financial transactions, personal information and intellectual property is constantly transmitted electronically. While cryptography helps to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of data there are various threats arising including advances in technology, human error and regulatory issues.
For example, key management is a significant challenge for cryptocurrency because keys are used to encrypt and decrypt sensitivie information and their loss or unauthorised access could lead to a breach of confidentiality. Similarly, quantum computing poses an important threat to traditional cryptographic systems as it has the potential to break many encrypted algorithms that are considered secured.
We also find other challenges such as side-channel attacks and compliance requirements that impact the effectiveness of cryptography in ensuring secure communication and data protection. Or the usability of cryptography as it may be difficult for non-technical users to adopt and use cryptography consistently across an organisation leading to potential vulnerabilities.
Why does it matter?
💸For markets: cryptography security breaches impact various industries.
The Financial industry is a prime target for cryptography security breaches as it handles large amounts of financial data and transactions leading to financial loss as well as reputational damage.
The Healthcare industry deals with highly sensitive information such as medical reecords, personal health information and insurance details. Between 2010 and 2022, healthcare breaches have exposed 385 million patient records leading to personal information exposure which can be exploited by cybercriminals for identity theft.
The Government and Military organisations deal with classified and sensitive information that requires the highest levels of security. New spying campaigns are breaching this field leading to the exposure of state secrets compromising national security.
The Technology and E-commerce world, rely heavily on cryptography to protect sensitive data such as credit card information, passwords and personal details therefore, breaches can result in financial loss as well as reputational damage. A study by Jscrambler found that third-party services running on the sites attempted to leak 144,000 customer data records which could have lead to $1.6 million in damages.
The Energy and Utilities industry deals with critical infrastructure and sensitive information such as information related to power grids and oil & gas pipelines. Breaches can have severe consequences including power outages, environmental damage and safety risks. Some examples can be found here.
🧑🏿🤝🧑🏻For society: from protecting sensitive information to building trust.
Cryptography plays a critical role in protecting sensitive information such as personal data, financial transactions and medical records. Without it information would be vulnerable to interception and misuse. Cryptography allows individuals to communicate securely over the Internet and helps preserve their privacy. It also helps to facilitate trust between individuals and organisations by providing a secure and reliable method of verifying identity and ensuring the integrity of data.
Nevertheless, individuals should seek out user-friendly tools and resources that make cryptography more accessible such as encrypting software with simple interfaces, use a password manager to securely store their keys and use multi-factor authentication to protect their accounts, choose reputable providers with strong security practices, use encryption in a responsible and ethical manner and, choose encryption tools that are widely supported & use open standards to ensure compatibility across different systems.
🔮What’s next?
A report from Statista was released in November 2022 estimating that by 2027, annual cybercrime costs worldwide could exceed 23 trillion dollars. The rise of cyberwar is real. Any organisation or individual that deals with sensitive information is at risk of cryptography security breaches. It is therefore essential to implement robust systems and best practices to protect against these risks and ensure the security of their sensitive information.
As the field of cryptography is constantly evolving, there are several emerging trends and technologies shaping its future:
Homomorphic encryption allows computation to be performed on encrypted data without the need to decrypt it first. This technology has the potential to revolutionise data privacy as it enables secure data processing without revealing sensitive information.
With the advent of quantum computers, current cryptographic techniques are at risk of being broken. Quantum-safe cryptography aims to develop new encryption methods that are resistant to attacks from quantum computers.
Multi-party Computation or MPC allows multiple parties to compute on shared data without revealing their inputs to each other. This technology has applications in secure data sharing and collaborative computing.
Post-quantum cryptography is a type fo quantum safe cryptography design to withstand attacks from both, classical and quantum computers.
Cryptography plays a crucial role in securing blockchain networks and researchers are constantly exploring new ways to improve the security and privacy of blockchain-based systems.Lastly, Differential privacy is a technique that allows the analysis of sensitive data while protecting individual privay. It adds random noise to the data to mask individual information while still allowing for accurate analysis of the overall data set.
As technology continues to evolve, cryptography will remain a vital component of digital security and researchers will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible.
👋That’is for this edition.
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