When I read the headline, “Hackers Backdoor the Human Brain, Successfully Extract Sensitive Data” the geek node in my brain totally exploded.

I was thinking about the contents of the aluminum case in Inception; the vials and syringes. The thing for your skull, with all of the little suction cups. All of that military grade head cracking paraphernalia had me seriously wanting to master dream yoga. 

This isn’t that. This is something else entirely; almost quaint in comparison. 

The Emotiv Epoc. Control for the Post-Digital World

Using Brain Computer Interfaces, available for between $200 and $300, researchers found that they could use the data to hone in on your sensitive information. Kind of. Researchers found that among their 28 subjects, they were able to steal data with a success rate of between 10 and 40 percent. Sounds more like a failure rate. I mean, there isn’t a whole lot you can do with 10 percent of the truth.

But think of it like this. You’re wearing your little head-squid looking thing, playing a mental interface game that takes place over the course of games. That’s plenty of time to do some serious mental data mining. Under those circumstances, the thieves would be able to slip in images again and again, narrowing down the responses until they have exactly what you want, be it your attitudes towards a product or your social media passwords. 

It still isn’t nearly as cool as Inception, but it is way more efficient.