Sunday, November 22, 2009

Is YOUR R2D2 or C3PO spying on you?


I just got my electronic copy of the December issue of Nuts & Volts magazine. On page 11, there is a link to a University of Washington study partially sponsored by the National Science Foundation that addresses whether or not any of three currently available home robots could be hijacked and made to spy on the home it lives in. Their findings are that all three were vulnerable to different kinds of attacks. The models of robots were: Erector Spykee, and the WowWee models RoboSapien v2 and Rovio. If you own one of these models or are considering purchase of a home robot, it might behoove you to check out reports on whether or not your trusted servant may be forced to betray your confidence.

Comments welcomed.

4 comments:

  1. ...and in 2024 the machines developed self-awareness...

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  2. Yeah, well, at THIS point, we're just talking betrayal of confidence. /g/

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  3. Weren't there some digital pictureframes from China that not only downloaded and displayed pix from your computer, but also siphoned off your vital data and sent it back to the PRC?? WowWee, indeed!!

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  4. Yep. Here's one report:
    http://www.upicom/Science_News/2008/02/18/Digital-frame-virus-traced-to-China/UPI-94091203386730/

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