Communications of the ACM
w Researchers Hack a Teleoperated Surgical Robot to Reveal Security Flaws
A series of experiments at the University of Washington were aimed at determining how easily malicious attackers could hijack remote-controlled surgical robots.
Credit: University of Washington
University of Washington (UW) researchers recently conducted a series of experiments to test how easily a malicious attack could hijack remote-controlled surgical robots, and to make those operations more secure.
The researchers demonstrated that next-generation teleoperated robots using nonprivate networks can be disrupted or derailed by common forms of cyberattacks. The researchers recommend incorporating security measures to thwart those attacks.
"We want to make the next generation of telerobots resilient to some of the threats we've detected without putting an operator or patient or any other person in the physical world in danger," says UW doctoral student Tamara Bonaci.
The researchers exposed the vulnerabilities by mounting common cyberattacks as study participants used Raven II, a teleoperated surgical robot, to move rubber blocks between pegs on a pegboard. The researchers used man-in-the-middle attacks to maliciously disrupt a wide range of the robot's functions and even to completely override command inputs. The researchers also conducted denial-of-service attacks and were able to disrupt the robots movements.
"We need to design for and test additional security measures now, before the next generation of telerobots are deployed," says UW professor Howard Chizeck.
From University of Washington News and Information
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