EuroWire September 2017

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Transatlantic cable
September 2017 41
However, the main thrust of the Trend Micro report was not
worker safety but industrial sabotage: real damage done to
industrial machinery by compromised software.
It considers imperceptible changes that could be introduced by
way of industrial robots, leading to subtle defects in the goods
being produced.
Any such threat would leave manufacturers vulnerable to
blackmail, much like the victims of the WannaCry ransomware
exploit which in May of this year infected computers worldwide.
† Some ways in which users of co-bots fail to protect
themselves were duly noted. Much of the software running
these industry-grade devices is not properly updated and
patched to correct known software vulnerabilities. Users
may not be diligent about their default authentication
credentials. And straightforward hacker-proo ng measures
like code-signing for rmware upgrades are often neglected.
Worrisome as these are, such lapses can be recti ed. What
came as much more of a surprise to Mr Schneider, who
assumed that great pains would always be taken to keep
industrial robots isolated, was the extent to which they are
connected to the Internet.
He wrote: “When I dabbled in CNC [computer numerical
control] work in my garage several years ago, I was careful
to keep my router-toting robot o the Internet for the sake
of safety. But apparently that’s not the case in industry these
days.”
† To ignore the implicit warning here would be folly. Industrial
robots – conceived to be isolated – have evolved and
are now accessible by way of corporate networks and
the Internet. The Trend Micro authors readily found many
examples of Internet-connected industrial robots.
“We were looking for connected robots from the top
vendors . . . and found several, some of which even provided
unrestricted access using anonymous credentials.” Ie, the
authentication system was disabled. (From “Rogue Robots:
Testing the Limits of an Industrial Robot’s Security”)
Of related interest . . .
† The results of a recent BT survey of 1,501 information
technology (IT) decision makers across UK organisations of
all sizes revealed that arti cial intelligence (AI) technologies
are already being implemented by over one-third of
respondents.
Also as reported by BT Newsroom (12 th June), one in four
organisations told the communications services provider
that it used such automation technologies as robots, drones
or autonomous vehicles, with almost two-thirds describing
the adoption as “very bene cial.”
Even as decision makers in the UK are divided about the
impact of “disruptive” technologies – the so-called Fourth
Industrial Revolution – on the labour market, one-third
of the surveyed organisations planning to implement AI
over the next two years expect it to mean more jobs, not
fewer. This re ects the view that AI will generate new
opportunities for programmers, algorithm designers and
software engineers and create new job categories for
AI-centred trainers, ethicists and lawyers.