Cyber criminals manage to manipulate the machines in such a way that they spy on their behalf or even attack people.
Berlin The corona pandemic is accelerating automation. In hotels, robo-butlers bring towels and toothbrushes to the rooms. Disinfection robots clean floors and surfaces in hospitals. And in restaurants, robot waiters serve dishes. Contactless, with no risk of infection. Robots, that is their greatest advantage over humans, are not contagious and do not get sick. They don't cough, shake hands, and don't need masks.
Robots were once designed to do dangerous jobs. The dirty work that nobody wants to do. Now, in times of a global pandemic, with deadly danger lurking around every corner, your hour has come. You can send them to the front like soldiers.
FedEx uses delivery robots to deliver packages, and there are now 200,000 robots active in Amazon's logistics centers, continuously processing customer orders. According to a report by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), 2.7 million industrial robots were in use worldwide in September. By the end of the year it should be three million. The experts agree that machines make economies and health systems more robust. But robots still suffer from a teething problem: security vulnerabilities.
The cybersecurity experts Cesar Cerrudo and Lucas Apa demonstrated how a humanoid robot can be hacked and converted into a bat in the blink of an eye. The Ubtech’s Alpha 2 robot made mechanical pushing movements with a screwdriver in hand that crushed a tomato. The movements of the robot arm could also injure a human. It's not as cute as the android looks. The problem: The robot model does not require an authentication key for the Bluetooth connection. With a simple Bluetooth message, the security researchers were able to access modules, microphones and cameras and thus take control of the robot.
The robot stands in front of the cash registers in a supermarket and informs the customers of a supermarket about the rules of conduct in connection with the corona pandemic.
The robot models Nao. which are used in the education and service sectors, also have security gaps, according to the analysis. Some protocols are unencrypted. The problem is not just weaknesses in the software, but also weaknesses in the hardware. For example, a programming command that deactivates certain functions such as collision avoidance can be injected into the network via connections such as the LAN port. A hacker could use a few lines of code to break the software and turn a robot into a Rambo.
A hardware hack is less of a threat to a household robot. An attacker would have to break into the home for physical access. However, the safety risk is significantly greater for a robot that stands around in a school or hospital and is left unattended for long periods of time.
Cyber criminals could manipulate robots in such a way that they spy on their behalf or even attack people. Imagine a robot insulting a customer or pouring coffee on his clothes. Or molest a patient.
At this year's Black Hatconference, cybersecurity experts from McAfee identified serious security gaps in the Temi assistant robot, which is used in hospitals, among other places. By bypassing authentication elements, hackers would theoretically be able to control the robot remotely and, for example, activate the camera and microphone.
Security researchers are alarmed. Alias Robotics, a robotics security firm, recently warned that thousands of industrial robots have security vulnerabilities. In addition to logistics companies and airports, kindergartens and hospitals are also affected. Many of the robots are currently out of security control, the report said.
The cybersecurity experts are particularly concerned about semi-autonomous disinfection robots that sterilize surfaces in airports or hospitals. The reason: the robots work with UV light. High intensity rays can damage not only the DNA of viruses but also that of humans. In the wrong hands, a disinfection robot can cause serious sunburn or even skin cancer in people.
The analysts therefore recommend a robust safety architecture for robotic systems. Robots can make a contribution to fighting the corona pandemic. But they also create new vulnerabilities in the network society, the consequences of which are not yet foreseeable.
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