Hacking Your Body Takes On New Meaning
By: Jim Stickley and Tina Davis
September 21, 2018
You may have heard a term tossed around within the cybersecurity realm within recent times; particularly as technological advances allow humans to do so many things such as synthesizing DNA or finding specific cancer drugs based on a patient’s genetics. Well, there is another term that is being seen and heard more and more, and although it sounds like a cybersecurity term, it really isn’t. But the process can result in some interesting things.
Biohacking has been around for a while. What it traditionally referred to was changing your biology to make your body better. Some may say taking action to “upgrade” it. That typically meant taking vitamin supplements or perhaps changing your gut microbiome, for example. There are many other examples, but these are a couple that most all of us can relate to. However, biohacking is taking on a new face these days as technology makes cybernetic device implants a reality.
Currently there are several products either in development or being actively used by someone that have been implanted into their bodies to change them somehow. One product under development is a blood-testing implant that gets inserted under the skin and can monitor substances in the blood. It is recharged through the skin using an external battery.
Another product that seems to be popular among biohackers are magnetic implants inserted in the hands or fingertips. These allow the users (called grinders) to sense magnetic fields. Why this is so popular is unknown to us. It can make for a cool bar trick though. And you may have heard of the company that provided an option to employees to have an RFID chip implanted in them to use as an access card to the facility buildings.
There are other products like these and some even can be controlled by an app. Well, if you know anything about the Internet of Things (IoT), you know that if it can be controlled via the internet, there is a risk of it being hacked by someone who may not care about your blood glucose level, but just wants access to a router to perhaps conduct a cyberattack. Or they may want access to your office building, and by hacking your implanted RFID chip they could potentially do it.
Of course not all such devices will be used for malicious activity. In fact, many of them may be quite useful to treat diseases such as diabetes or brain cancer. However, if they can be connected to the Internet, there is a risk of them being hacked.
Just use caution if you’re one that welcomes this type of technology. And since these are still new on the block, there is a lot that isn’t known about them. Whatever happens though, you can be sure those in the world of cybercrime will be watching closely.