A Look into the Vulnerable Future of Medical Devices through Assessment of a tDCS Gaming Device

Many studies have explored security vulnerabilities in personal medical devices (PMDs). However, these vulnerabilities usually emerge after the PMD is already deployed to patients. In this study, we provide a list of attack categories and adverse events for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and implanted PMDs. We apply this list to a security examination of a popular but unregulated device that induces a signal in the user's brain through transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS). This paper reports four configurations which could, in combination with other vulnerabilities, allow an attacker to cause adverse events using tDCS.