Increasingly Popular Industrial Robots Are Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks, Report Warns

Industrial robots are now being used to assemble everything from airplanes to smartphones, using human-like arms to mechanically repeat the same processes over and over, thousands of times a day with nanometric precision. But according to a new report entitled "Rogue Automation," some robots have flaws that could make them vulnerable to advanced hackers, who could steal data or alter a robot's movements remotely, like a scene out of science fiction. "Attacks on industrial environments in these sectors could have serious consequences, including operational failure, physical damage, environmental harm and injury or loss of life," according to Federico Maggi, a researcher at Trend Micro Inc., and Marcello Pogliani, an information security researcher at Politecnico di Milano, in a research report reviewed by Bloomberg News. The report will be presented Wednesday at a virtual forum organized by Black Hat, which hosts cybersecurity events around the world. Robots are often connected to networks and run via software, according to the report, and previously unknown vulnerabilities could allow hackers to hide malicious code in them and other automated, programmable manufacturing machines.