The Serious Security Problem Looming Over Robotics

It's a dapper robot, wearing a bowtie even while it sits at home in its lab at the University of Washington. Its head is a camera, which it cranes up and down, taking in the view of a dimly lit corner where two computer monitors sit. All perfectly normal stuff for a robot--until the machine speaks: "Hello from the hackers." Clear across the country at Brown University, researchers have compromised Herb2. They've showed how they can scan for internet-connected research robots in labs and take command--with the blessing of the robot's owners at the University of Washington, of course.