804
8 Modern Weapons: Possibilities and Limitations
Neuroweapons will spread, they will be misused, and they will lead to new security
threats. But it is important to keep in mind that while neuroweapons that could
influence or even control the behavior of enemies may appear for now to be the
perfect or ultimate weapons, it will also be possible to defend against them.
It is clear that many ideas for organization of successful neural defense and provision of neural security can be borrowed from the theory of biological security and
cybersecurity. There is no doubt that these complex tasks will be solved.
However, even more important than neural defense for the society, decisionmaking officials and military officers will be to understand how to use neuroS/T
to improve human qualities instead of immortalization of human conflicts and
improvement of warfare methods, along with the fact that freedom and autonomy of
an individual shall not be violated at the same time. Specialists shall properly think
about neural ethics before jumping into the age of unlimited neural warfare means;
otherwise, the consequences of this process may lead to the end of humanity.
To conclude this section, we shall note that we understand the reaction of our
readers well—for the vast majority of them, it all looks like quotes from a cheap
sci-fi detective; unfortunately, this is the real situation at this moment.
It should be said that when the authors only started studying this subject, they
were very sceptical about such scary tales; however, an in-depth analysis of the
available extensive information in scientific periodic press ultimately caused us to
include this Sect. 8.8 in the book, which had not been planned before.
Neural weapons in combination with cyberweapons is what is going to determine
the strategy and tactics of modern wars. Any reader can easily verify the realness
of these threats by addressing the sources quoted here.
8.7 What Did the Authors Learn About Hardware Trojans
in Microcircuits?
8.7.1 What Did the Authors Know About Hardware Trojans?
The authors, who spent many years working in the Soviet electronic industry, heard
about various backdoors and software implants back then, but never came across
them in the beginning of their practical activity (1970s–1980s). Moreover, they first
considered these stories to be spooky communist propaganda tales and journalist
fiction. However, since in Soviet times, the times of the Cold War, the Soviet special
services worked extremely hard, aiming to prevent both real and all potential threats
to security of the socialist Motherland, we also had to directly participate in a number
of research and development works and even engineering works aimed at increasing
security of our Soviet microcircuits. Back then, we as young electronics engineers
first learned about the possibility of presence of various non-documented functions,
hidden commands, and other interesting things from the special services that curated
us. Moreover, while performing a number of secret research and development works
8 Modern Weapons: Possibilities and Limitations
Neuroweapons will spread, they will be misused, and they will lead to new security
threats. But it is important to keep in mind that while neuroweapons that could
influence or even control the behavior of enemies may appear for now to be the
perfect or ultimate weapons, it will also be possible to defend against them.
It is clear that many ideas for organization of successful neural defense and provision of neural security can be borrowed from the theory of biological security and
cybersecurity. There is no doubt that these complex tasks will be solved.
However, even more important than neural defense for the society, decisionmaking officials and military officers will be to understand how to use neuroS/T
to improve human qualities instead of immortalization of human conflicts and
improvement of warfare methods, along with the fact that freedom and autonomy of
an individual shall not be violated at the same time. Specialists shall properly think
about neural ethics before jumping into the age of unlimited neural warfare means;
otherwise, the consequences of this process may lead to the end of humanity.
To conclude this section, we shall note that we understand the reaction of our
readers well—for the vast majority of them, it all looks like quotes from a cheap
sci-fi detective; unfortunately, this is the real situation at this moment.
It should be said that when the authors only started studying this subject, they
were very sceptical about such scary tales; however, an in-depth analysis of the
available extensive information in scientific periodic press ultimately caused us to
include this Sect. 8.8 in the book, which had not been planned before.
Neural weapons in combination with cyberweapons is what is going to determine
the strategy and tactics of modern wars. Any reader can easily verify the realness
of these threats by addressing the sources quoted here.
8.7 What Did the Authors Learn About Hardware Trojans
in Microcircuits?
8.7.1 What Did the Authors Know About Hardware Trojans?
The authors, who spent many years working in the Soviet electronic industry, heard
about various backdoors and software implants back then, but never came across
them in the beginning of their practical activity (1970s–1980s). Moreover, they first
considered these stories to be spooky communist propaganda tales and journalist
fiction. However, since in Soviet times, the times of the Cold War, the Soviet special
services worked extremely hard, aiming to prevent both real and all potential threats
to security of the socialist Motherland, we also had to directly participate in a number
of research and development works and even engineering works aimed at increasing
security of our Soviet microcircuits. Back then, we as young electronics engineers
first learned about the possibility of presence of various non-documented functions,
hidden commands, and other interesting things from the special services that curated
us. Moreover, while performing a number of secret research and development works