Can cyber crooks hack your brain? 

Maybe not your actual grey matter (not yet, anyway).

But they can get into the machines that measure your brainwaves and do some nasty business.

This and more in our latest scam alert:

You’d hope your brain would be safe from cyber crooks.

And you might think so after watching a promo video from medical device maker Natus.

“You can be assured you’re operating on one of the most secure platforms in the industry,” the video says.

But security researchers from Cisco Talus found that attackers can get in to some of the Natus machines that monitor your brainwaves — the EEG or electroencephalography devices.

They say the crooks could mess with your data, crash the system and try to take over the hospitals’ computers.

Cisco says Natus has put out an update to fix the security holes. 

And the hope is that hospitals will follow through and update the devices.

A Natus video shows how to place EEG electrode on a patient’s head. Image credit: Natus

Delete Now

If you have this app, delete it now.

Intel is asking the more than 500,000 people  who downloaded the Intel Remote Keyboard app to uninstall at your earliest convenience.

The app lets you use your phone or tablet as a portable keyboard for your computer or for mini computers like Intel’s NUC or pack-of-gum-sized “Compute Stick.” 

Intel says bad guys can worm their way in and type what they want or take over your devices.

They call this security hole “critical,” the most severe rating possible.

Groupon Faker

A man who racked up complaints on Groupon for failing to deliver jewelry is now going to prison.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says Gerald Kent of Kent Jewelry in Johnston, Rhode Island, did far more than just leave unhappy Groupon customers.

Court documents say he made a fake Groupon website and posted a slew of fake purchases on it.

An image from a jewelry site run by Gerald Kent. Image credit: Kent’s Trading

The goal — to convince a loan company to give him money by pretending that he had a lot of business on Groupon and was about to come into some big cash to repay the loan.

Documents show that the scheme worked, allowing him to steal more than three million dollars.

Now Kent has to pay the money back and spend four years behind bars.

Power Your Play

This is not a scam, but a tech treat.

Jeremy Fielding likes to take things apart and put them back together in creative ways.

In a video on YouTube, he shows how he took apart an old treadmill and made a human-powered generator.

He and his kids can use it to power their Wii games.

Jeremy Fielding’s re-purposed treadmill YouTube video shows his rowing machine that powers his Wii.

If you don’t row hard enough, the game powers down.

It’s motivation to keep your motor running — and fight computer-generated weight gain.

See other alerts:

Scam Alert #11 — Fake peepers & video game scams

Scam Alert #10 — Stealing bones & hacking robots

Scam Alert #9 — Secret text messages & peeping on kids

See more Scam Alerts here at Archer News.