Biologists Discover Bacteria Communicate Like Neurons in the Brain

Just append 'sci-hub.org' to the domain name of a journal article URL to get it for free: http://www.nature.com.sci-hub.org/nature/journal/vaop/ncurre...

You can always tweet #icanhazpdf :-)

[1] https://twitter.com/hashtag/icanhazpdf

Bacteria have their own protection mechanisms. That being said, your question belies an assumption. Is it not brain-like if it's damaged/attacked? The blood-brain barrier is a structure the human brain has developed that provides a kind of protection. Things still get through and affect the human brain. So the idea of "protection" is a matter of vector, intensity, and the nature of the interaction being "protected". e.g. If a pain receptor is no longer registering due to an opiate, has the brain been disrupted?

The latter. According to the article the 'like neurons' part just means that they use ion channels to communicate. You could argue that the title of the article is slightly misleading, but then again this is an article that talks about 'charged ions'.

From the abstract of the paper (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...)

"[...] ion channels conduct long-range electrical signals within bacterial biofilm communities through spatially propagating waves of potassium. These waves result from a positive feedback loop, in which a metabolic trigger induces release of intracellular potassium, which in turn depolarizes neighbouring cells. Propagating through the biofilm, this wave of depolarization coordinates metabolic states among cells in the interior and periphery of the biofilm."