Industrial Robots Are Not Safe From Cyber Attack

The rapid progress of Artificial Intelligence (AI), combined with readily available large data sets, lower prices for sensors and electronics and a steady demand for efficiency,  is paving the way for a c“robot revolution" and millions of industrial robots are predicted to be used in manufacturing around the world very soon.. 

With the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on human workers, it looks like the time has come for industrial robots to take over factory floors and showcase the suite of benefits they bring to manufacturing.  But similar to remote working for humans, when they are incorrectly set up and poorly secured, industrial robots can be a source of major security issues.

Robots are generally known to automate repetitive tasks and free up valuable time for their human colleagues to take on more complex and creative tasks; the current social distancing measures have built a stronger case for robot use. Industrial robots have a long legacy of assembling everything from heavy automobiles, airplanes, electrical appliances. Now they are demonstrated remarkable versatility and strength in taking over human labor with consistent speed and precision. This highly efficient employee has won over factory owners. The global industrial robot market size is predicted to exceed US$66 billion by 2027.

Since robots are generally connected to networks and programmed via software, they could potentially present entry points for bad actors. Indeed, researchers at Trend Micro have recently discovered vulnerabilities in an app written in proprietary programming language distributed by Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation ABB, which is used to automate industrial machines.

The discovered flaw is the very tool that hackers can leverage on and gain access to networks, exfiltrating valuable files, and sensitive data. 

Trend Micro's researchers also spotted vulnerabilities in the popular open-source software named “Robot Operating System Industrial” or ROS-I. They found a vulnerability that attackers can exploit to interfere with a robot’s movements via a network. By spoofing, an unknown source disguising as a known, trusted source to communicate, network packets, attackers can cause unintended movements or interrupt existing flows of set procedure. This vulnerability found in a ROS-I’s software component was written for Kuka and ABB robots. However, adequately configured safety systems could make it challenging for hackers to succeed.

The report clarified that appropriate measures were taken to deal with the discovered vulnerability. “One was removed by the vendor (ABB) upon our responsible disclosure. The other vulnerabilities fostered a fruitful conversation with ROS-Industrial, which led to the development of some of the mitigation recommendations described,” as written in the report.

Robots are capable of replacing human manufacturing workers and of making companies more productive in the process. In the US, four manufacturing industries account for 70 percent of robots: automakers (38 percent of robots in use), electronics (15 percent), the plastics and chemical industry (10 percent), and metals manufacturers (7 percent).

Trend Micro:     News Scientist:        TechHQ:          MIT:       Interesting Engineering: 

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