Japanese Hotel Chain Sorry That Hackers May Have Watched Guests Through Bedside Robots (theregister.co.uk) 21
Japanese hotel chain HIS Group has apologized for ignoring warnings that its in-room robots were hackable to allow pervs to remotely view video footage from the devices. The Register reports: The Henn na Hotel is staffed by robots: guests can be checked in by humanoid or dinosaur reception bots before proceeding to their room. Facial recognition tech will let customers into their room and then a bedside robot will assist with other requirements. However several weeks ago a security researcher revealed on Twitter that he had warned HIS Group in July about the bed-bots being easily accessible, noting they sported "unsigned code" allowing a user to tap an NFC tag to the back of robot's head and allow access via the streaming app of their choice.
Having heard nothing, the researcher made the hack public on October 13. The vulnerability allows guests to gain access to cameras and microphones in the robot remotely so they could watch and listen to anyone in the room in the future. The hotel is one of a chain of 10 in Japan which use a variety of robots instead of meat-based staff. So far the reference is only to Tapia robots at one hotel, although it is not clear if the rest of the chain uses different devices. The HIS Group tweeted: "We apologize for any uneasiness caused," according to the Tokyo Reporter. The paper was told that the company had decided the risks of unauthorized access were low, however, the robots have now been updated.
Having heard nothing, the researcher made the hack public on October 13. The vulnerability allows guests to gain access to cameras and microphones in the robot remotely so they could watch and listen to anyone in the room in the future. The hotel is one of a chain of 10 in Japan which use a variety of robots instead of meat-based staff. So far the reference is only to Tapia robots at one hotel, although it is not clear if the rest of the chain uses different devices. The HIS Group tweeted: "We apologize for any uneasiness caused," according to the Tokyo Reporter. The paper was told that the company had decided the risks of unauthorized access were low, however, the robots have now been updated.
Warning? (Score:3)
If you put a networked camera in your bedroom, you should expect to be watched. Period.
By law, they should be put "Warnings" that you might be watched on all such cameras, just as they put warnings on tobacco products.
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they get blocked with opaque tape.
Opaque to what? Visible light?
Most webcam CCD's can and will record way outside the visible wavelengths if you remove the filter thats in front of them. In other words, its cheaper to record in non-visible wavelengths. Now, this is a bedside camera, yes? Do you suppose thats visible light it was designed to record?
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Step 2 - put metallic foil tape on camera lens - will block visible and ultraviolet light and a hell of a lot of shorter wavelengths too
Step 3 - have fun
Re: Warning? (Score:2)
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Do they have sex robots? (Score:2)
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Obviously the Government (Score:1)
is the problem.
When in (Score:2)
In Japan avoid all robots.
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Japan has never been communist. This is the result of a privately-owned business in a market-based economy deciding that it isn't worth the cost to secure their systems.
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In market-based economy Japan robot always ready to
IOT is a nightmare (Score:2)
Underlying Trend Developing (Score:2)
There is already growing greater and greater resistance to use of automation and people where they are required to interact more and more preferring to interact with people rather than devices. Events like this just accelerate the process, contrary to the claims of science fiction and tech companies, people are more trustworthy than robot. Robots are extremely unreliable, preventing hacks seemingly impossible by the nature of robotics it must enable remote communications to control it and that vector is alw
H. H. Holmes (Score:2)