Researchers at the University of Alabama in Birmingham suggest that brainwave-sensing headsets (耳麦), also known as EEG headsets, need to do more to protect users after a study which shows hackers (黑客) could guess a user’s bank account passwords by monitoring his brainwaves.

Nitesh Saxena, Ph.D., professor in the UAB College of Computer and Information Sciences Department, and his team found that a person who stopped a video game and entered into a bank account while wearing an EEG headset was at a risk for having his passwords stolen by a bad software program. Saxena and his team used one EEG headset that could be bought by customers online to show how easily an ill software program could eavesdrop on a user’s brainwaves. While typing, a user’s inputs meet with their visual processing, as well as hand, eye and head muscle movements. All these movements are caught by EEG headsets.

The team asked 12 people to type passwords into a text box as if they were entering into an online account while wearing an EEG headset, in order for the software to train itself on the user’s typing and the present brainwave. The team found that, after a user entered passwords within the ill software program that could make educated guesses about the passwords, the user entered by reading the EEG data recorded. It increased the chance of guessing a six-letter password from one in 500,000 to one in 5.

“Given the growing popularity of EEG headsets and the different ways in which they could be used, they will become part of our daily lives,” Saxena said. “It is important to study the possible risks together with this new technology to raise users’ attention to the risks and develop solutions to the bad attacks.” One possible solution suggested by Saxena and his team is the insertion (插入) of noises anytime a user types a password while wearing an EEG headset.

Siesta is a Spanish word referring to a nap or rest break usually after lunch. The word “siesta” comes from the Latin base “sexta“, which means sixth and refers to the sixth hour, or “sexta hora”, of daylight.

By definition, a siesta takes place six hours after dawn, if the sun rises at 7 am, the “sexta hora” would take place just after noon. However, most people do not time their siesta so literally. Traditionally, a siesta takes place after lunch in the mid afternoon. A small Spanish town called Ador, which still practices a daily siesta, closes all businesses between 2 pm and 5 pm each day. Historically, Spanish companies that built a two-hour break into the workday schedule made the working day end around 8 pm, a practice that continues among many Spanish workers today.

Although most people connect the siesta with Spain, its actual birthplace is Italy. Similar midday nap breaks are common around Mediterranean(地中海)and in many Latin American countries, where the midday is often hot. Before air conditioning was invented, the siesta offered a much-needed break from the hottest hours of the day.

In recent years, former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy introduced a plan to end the siesta, which would allow many workers to end their workdays earlier, making Spain’s standard work schedule at the same level with its European neighbors.

Although not a widespread practice, some countries outside of the Mediterranean area currently encourage midday napping. For example, parts of Japan have provided nap pods for midday breaks, and falling asleep at work is viewed as a positive sign that a person is working hard. In the US, some sleep researchers are trying to spread the concept of a power nap, which would allow people to briefly(短暂地)sleep while they are at work.