Image: John Baichtal
With more people buying interactive robots, one naturally poses the question, just how secure are these bots? Particularly when you take into consideration bots that connect to the Internet, is there the potential for mischief?
The University of Washington conducted a study where they evaluated three toy robots: the Erector Spykee and WowWee’s RoboSapien and Rovio.
Here were their conclusions:
Researchers and manufacturers should work to improve the security and privacy features of future household robots, since a greater variety of robots with more impressive skills will be found in homes in the future.
Household robots have different types of risks than traditional computers. With traditional computers, third-parties can try to get your financial information or destroy your files. With current and future household robots, third-parties can have eyes, ears, and “hands” in your home.
Consumers should have resources available to them so that they can make informed decisions about purchasing household robots that could have an impact on their safety or privacy.
For more information, read the study’s online abstract or the full paper.
