Intelligent & Powerful Machines Can Be Hacked for Murders & Spying: Reports

Ever heard of hackable robots?  Or psychotic robots?  What about spy or slaying robots?  Studies show that the much-adored humanoid forms can be hijacked to attack humans.  The IOActive security experts have declared around 50 robots that can be cracked to mercilessly harm you.  This comprises of the Japan Softbank Robotics’ Pepper and NAO, Universal Robots (UR3, UR5, UR10), UBTECH Robotics’ Alpha 1S and 2, Robotus’ Thormang 3 and Robotis OP2, and Rethink Robotics’ Sawyer and Baxter.

Industrial robots are used majorly in the U.S.  They are shown to be at risk of a compromise over their system settings by the cyber punks.  Some of these features were common to many of the droids.

These features include weak configuration and control order.  Firmware, camera, microphones, known OS, backups, remote control applications, connection ports, network connectivity, autonomous robots, fact deployment are all vulnerable to cyber woes.

Research reveals an Alpha 2 robot furiously stabbing a tomato using a screwdriver.  This was possible after a successful hack into its software.  These non-human machines may run at low speeds.  Yet they can cause a fracture in your skull with their mighty force and size.  The tomato was just a sample.



Security researchers worry over the plethora of danger that awaits these robot handlers.  ‘Similar to other new technologies, we’ve found robot technology to be insecure in a variety of ways, and that insecurity could pose serious threats to the people, animals, and organizations they operate in and around.’

Hackers can easily disable the key safety features of a robot in a remote fashion.  This can be in turn programmed to harm nearby humans.

Other than the physical injuries, these heavy industrial builds can also pose a threat to your privacy.  By breaking through your robot’s software, cyber thieves can spy on you, record your conversations and steal all your credentials.  These home spies can stalk you, further allowing relaxed entry of burglars into your homes.

Nonetheless, you need to fear killer robots to charge on you.  The concept of robots turning as dangerous weapons was detailed to the concerned authorities.  Although the UBTECH claims to have addressed all the associated risks, they should not be ignoring the verdict of Seattle-based IOActive in this regard.