Home robots may be hackers' next target
Home surveillance robots could be turned against their users, researchers say; few people have home robots now, but reliance on them grows for stay-at-home elderly and the sick
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A paper published recently by researchers at the University of Washington shows that several commercial home robots — small, wheeled bots with cameras, microphones, and other audio-visual surveillance features — are not as secure as their owners may think. The researchers studied 2008 models of the Erector Spykee, and WowWee’s RoboSapien, and Rovio robots and found security holes that include unencrypted audio-visual streams, unencrypted user names and passwords for accessing and controlling the bots, and tricks for taking over the robots remotely.
The researchers say on their Web site that “[These vulnerabilities] mean that someone might be able to drive your robot around your home, look around the house, listen in on conversations, and knock over small objects.”
Kristina Grifantini writes that since few people have personal robots, this is hardly a major threat. The researchers point out, however, that better security and privacy safety measures will need to be taken as home robots become more common. To stay protected, they recommend keeping networks and robot control encrypted, avoiding remote access, and turning off the robots when they are not in use.
