Updated August 15, 2017 09:50:12

Imagine having a robot in your kitchen which is capable of cooking you dinner.

Well, for some it will soon be a reality. Now imagine what happens if your cooking robot is hijacked?

Dr Nicholas Patterson, a cyber security lecturer at Deakin University, has to take more than just the average laptop or smartphone into account nowadays; he also has to plan for if or when a robo chef is hacked.

"Think about if someone does hack that, how powerful it could be it's wielding knives and God knows what else," he said.

"Cyber security for robots is still a really new area, but I've spotted the holes quite early so I can see it's going to be a big problem.

"Someone in a certain country overseas can hack a robot in Australia and take control of that, spy on you, or attack you.

"You don't have to be in the next street or next house; you can be in another country."

Dr Patterson said robotic hacking had the potential to put a halt on the robotics industry.

With things such as robotic vacuum cleaners and drones becoming more common household items, he said other consumer robotics would be introduced a lot sooner than people thought.

By 2019, Dr Patterson said we could see up to 1.4 million new industrial robots installed in factories globally, and more would begin entering our homes as technology advanced at an alarming rate.

According to Dr Patterson, smaller robots might not pose much of a physical threat, however their speakers and microphones could be used to listen in to people's conversations.

"The larger ones are probably more the physical threat, like your robotic chef or the industrial type of robots," he said.

"The industrial ones are upwards of 200 pounds and they have things like lasers, welding devices and the clamping devices."

An SUV was hacked in the United States just last year.

"They could take over control of the car while it was mid-driving," Dr Patterson said.

He said in the past a person had also been able to hack into an airplane mid-flight.

"I think we're too much focused on laptops and phones, but there's these new avenues which are not looked at as much in terms of robots and passenger planes."

To prevent robotic hacking, Dr Patterson suggests updating anti-malware software and turning off Bluetooth and the wi-fi on robotic devices when not required.

He also recommends regularly changing the password you use to access the robot.

"Any remote doorways into the robot you want to switch off as best you can.

"Do we really need internet on a fridge or a TV? Probably not.

"Do we need it in a car? Yes, it helps download the GPS maps much more easily, but do we need that really?"

He said not only did it have the potential to cause problems surrounding privacy, but it could risk people's lives as well.

Topics: robots-and-artificial-intelligence, hacking, computers-and-technology, internet-culture, internet-technology, canberra-2600, australia, united-states

First posted August 15, 2017 07:30:00

More:

Robot hijacking threat in homes, cars could paralyse robotics industry, cyber expert warns - ABC Online