Security
QIF's security architecture protects neural interfaces across three domains: real-time signal authentication, layered frequency-band defense, and threat-mapped scoring. These are the mechanisms that determine whether a neural signal is legitimate or tampered with.
How It All Fits Together
QIF's security isn't a single tool — it's a pipeline. Each layer feeds the next, from threat discovery through scoring, wire-level protection, and secure content delivery.
Map
TARA Atlas catalogs 161+ attack techniques across 8 categories — signal injection, eavesdropping, cognitive manipulation, and more. Every technique is mapped to the brain regions it targets.
What can go wrong?Score
NISS scores each technique on 5 neural-specific dimensions — brain impact, cognitive gravity, controllability, reversibility, and neural propagation. Not CVSS for servers — NISS for brains.
How bad is it?Protect
NSP secures the wire. Post-quantum cryptography at the I0 interface — the single point every neural signal must cross. Hybrid key exchange, signal-gated authentication, and tiered defense by device class.
How do we stop it?Deliver
Project Runemate compiles multimodal content (images, sound, touch) into Staves bytecode — 65-90% smaller than classical web formats (67.8% measured in simulation). PQ-encrypted end-to-end through NSP. Small enough for implanted chips, secure enough for brain signals.
How do we deliver safely?The pipeline in one sentence: TARA maps every known attack on the brain, NISS scores how dangerous each one is, NSP locks down the wire with post-quantum cryptography, and Runemate delivers content through that secure channel small enough to run on implanted hardware. Each layer is independent but designed to work together.
Signal Integrity
Detecting forged or manipulated neural signals requires measuring signal characteristics across multiple dimensions — phase consistency, temporal stability, and spatial coherence. These concepts draw on established physics (wave propagation, Boltzmann statistics) and neuroscience (Fries' Communication Through Coherence, STDP timing windows).
Future Work
The mathematical formalization of signal integrity scoring — how variance dimensions combine into a composite security metric, and how frequency-band properties constrain valid signal characteristics — is future work. These calculations require collaboration with physicists and neuroscientists to validate against real hardware and biological data. Early explorations are documented in the QIF Whitepaper.
Explore Further
TARA Atlas
Browse all 161+ attack techniques mapped across the hourglass model, filterable by category, severity, and brain region.
QIF Framework
The 11-band hourglass architecture — layered defense from electromagnetic fields to cognitive state.
NSP Protocol
Post-quantum wire security for neural interfaces — 5-layer neurosecurity stack with signal-gated authentication.
NISS Scoring
Neural Impact Scoring System — vulnerability severity designed for brains, not servers.
Project Runemate
Native multimodal DSL compiler — PQ-encrypted content delivery small enough for implanted chips.
Governance
How neurorights and policy frameworks protect the people behind the interfaces.
Security Guardrails
Physics-derived defense architecture for BCI systems, mapping signal integrity constraints to per-band protection rules.