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Cybersecurity

Popular Robots are Dangerously Easy to Hack, Cybersecurity Firm Says

IOActive finds vulnerabilities in robots sold to industrial, home users
Inside SoftBank Group Corp.'s Pepper World 2016 Event

Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi, Photo Illustration: Tom Hall/Bloomberg

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Some of the most popular industrial and consumer robots are dangerously easy to hack and could be turned into bugging devices or weapons, IOActive Inc. said.

The Seattle-based cybersecurity firm found major security flaws in industrial models sold by Universal Robots, a division of U.S. technology company Teradyne Inc. It also cited issues with consumer robots Pepper and NAO, which are manufactured by Japan’s Softbank Group Corp., and the Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 made by China-based UBTech Robotics.