  Machine learning is at the center of mainstream technology and outperforms
classical approaches to handcrafted feature design. Aside from its learning
process for artificial feature extraction, it has an end-to-end paradigm from
input to output, reaching outstandingly accurate results. However, security
concerns about its robustness to malicious and imperceptible perturbations have
drawn attention since its prediction can be changed entirely. Salient object
detection is a research area where deep convolutional neural networks have
proven effective but whose trustworthiness represents a significant issue
requiring analysis and solutions to hackers' attacks. Brain programming is a
kind of symbolic learning in the vein of good old-fashioned artificial
intelligence. This work provides evidence that symbolic learning robustness is
crucial in designing reliable visual attention systems since it can withstand
even the most intense perturbations. We test this evolutionary computation
methodology against several adversarial attacks and noise perturbations using
standard databases and a real-world problem of a shorebird called the Snowy
Plover portraying a visual attention task. We compare our methodology with five
different deep learning approaches, proving that they do not match the symbolic
paradigm regarding robustness. All neural networks suffer significant
performance losses, while brain programming stands its ground and remains
unaffected. Also, by studying the Snowy Plover, we remark on the importance of
security in surveillance activities regarding wildlife protection and
conservation.
