{"id":4847,"date":"2015-05-01T00:14:33","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T04:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.in\/blog\/?p=4847"},"modified":"2020-02-26T20:28:40","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T14:58:40","slug":"hacking-the-robotic-surgeons-hands-and-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.in\/blog\/hacking-the-robotic-surgeons-hands-and-eyes\/4847\/","title":{"rendered":"Hacking the Robotic Surgeon’s Hands and Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A group of academic security researchers remotely hacked and took\u00a0control of a robot designed to perform telesurgery, according to the MIT Technology Review<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Researchers<\/a><\/p>\n

Telesurgery \u2014 perhaps better known as remote surgery \u2014 is exactly what it sounds like. Simply put, a doctor sits on a computer (fixed with highly specialized software and hardware) somewhere in the world and controls a robot performing surgery in some other part of the world. Perhaps not surprising to anyone who\u2019s ever looked at a surgical bill, human-guided, robot performed surgeries are actually less expensive than human-only operations, particularly when travel is involved.<\/p>\n

Therefore, telesurgery offers highly-trained doctors the ability to perform critical surgeries on patients living in parts of the world that lack highly-trained surgeons \u2014 without having to travel. This technology opens up an large\u00a0revenue potential for (relatively) cheap medical procedures all around the world. However, as you may have guessed<\/a>, certain telesurgery devices and protocols are vulnerable to dangerous electronic attacks.<\/p>\n

The researchers not only found it possible to monitor or disrupt remotely performed surgeries but to completely hijack them as well<\/div>\n

In this case, the University of Washington researchers, led by cyber-physical interaction expert Tamara Bonaci, targeted the communication technologies necessary to perform telesurgery. The researchers not only found it possible to monitor or disrupt remotely performed surgeries but to completely hijack them as well.<\/p>\n

As the MIT Technology Review notes, early telesurgery was performed via dedicated fiber lines. This tactic is simultaneously secure, assuming all the machines involved are malware free, and wildly expensive. Unfortunately, the monetary benefits of telesurgery all but disappear when there is a direct, dedicated line between surgeon and patient. In order for telesurgery to work well, financially speaking, tele-surgeons have had to experiment with cheaper communication solutions, like the Internet.<\/p>\n

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Security Experts Hack Teleoperated Surgical Robot http:\/\/t.co\/WiK6Efh05e<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 MIT Technology Review (@techreview) April 24, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n