Cybersecurity Issues in Robotics

Cybersecurity is not highly prioritized during the design and manufacture of robots. As with other embedded systems a higher priority is placed on development costs and delivering functionality to consumers. In the future greater attention to cybersecurity will need to be given as the use of robots continues to grow in the manufacturing, military, medical, eldercare and the automated vehicle markets. This work identifies current and potential cyber threats to robotics at the hardware, firmware/OS, and application levels. Attack scenarios at each level are presented and discussed. Additionally, the economic and human safety impact of a cyber attack on robots is examined. Finally, possible countermeasures are suggested.