[Tyler]

Security Risks of Household Robots
     

Tamara
Denning and other researchers at the University of Washington have
released a paper on the privacy and security risks of household robots,
titled "A
Spotlight on Security and Privacy Risks with Future Household Robots:
Attacks and Lessons" (PDF format). Under the assumption that future
homes will be populated with numerous commercially designed household
robots, the researchers examined the security of the three currently
available robots: The WowWee Rovio, the Erector Spykee, and the WowWee
RoboSapien v2. What did they find?
Our experiments uncovered a number of vulnerabilities
— some of which we deem to be quite serious, such as the
possibility of an attacker compromising a Rovio or a Spykee and
leveraging the built-in video camera to spy on a child in her bedroom

In addition to SSIDs and other leaked information over home WiFi
networks, the researchers found that the Spykee, the least secure of the
robots, is susceptible to Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks and makes
remote connections to the spykeeworld.com server in some configurations.
The research use their findings to develop a set of questions
designed to promote more secure household robots that will preserve
their human's privacy. As an aside the research hit the usual problem of
finding no adequate definition of the word robot. They choose to define
it as "a cyber-physical system with sensors, actuators, and
mobility".
   

http://robots.net/article/2928.html
     

[Bragi]

I also came accross this paper. My first impression though was: isn't this more of a general security problem that's applicable to every (household) computer, not just the robotic versions?

[Freddy]

Yes I tend to agree - there have already been cases of people using web-cams to spy on people.

[Bragi]

Exactly. I think the only advantages that those robots currently give, is motion.

[Art]

They also missed this one:

iRobot ConnectR allows you to virtually visit with family, friends, and pets any time you want. Using proprietary  software, a PC, and the robot's audio and video, you can access via the Internet and drive the robot around your home to see, hear and interact with whomever and whatever you want.

[johncoths]

I have read that a new University of Washington study discovered security weaknesses in three robots currently on the market. So that could be risky for us to get a robot in our house.


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[Freddy]

Please do not try and put free advertising in your posts.

[lrh9]

Makes me think about the 1998 Lost in Space movie. Dr. Smith used the robot control to reprogram the robot to destroy ship systems and attack the Robinson family.

[Freddy]

Haha yes !