Position : On Potential Malware & New Attack Vectors for Internet-of-Brains (IoB)

Abstract

The Internet of Brains (IoB) is a relatively recent and still emerging computing paradigm connecting different Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) devices to networks, smartphones, cloud, software, and machine-learning models. IoB and BCI usage is expected to grow increasingly thanks to R&D, marketing, and commodification efforts by companies such as Neuralink (with their invasive BCI) and Meta (with their non-invasive BCI coupled to VR/XR). This paper presents a position view on existing traditional attack vectors but also introduces and discusses several new attack vectors targeting IoB that could be abused by malware and ransomware actors in the near future. This work aims to initiate and facilitate discussions within the researchers' and practitioners' communities to study such emerging threats as early as possible, considering that IoB and BCI connect critical elements such as the users' brains to possibly hostile environment(s) such as computer networks and the Internet.