# To Make a Robot Secure: An Experimental Analysis of Cyber Security Threats Against Teleoperated Surgical Robots

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.04339 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.04339/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 16 Apr 2015.

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Security Considerations in AI-Robotics: A Survey of Current Methods, Challenges, and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08565/) (2023)
- [Data-driven Design of Context-aware Monitors for Hazard Prediction in Artificial Pancreas Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.02545/) (2021)
- [Runtime Detection of Executional Errors in Robot-Assisted Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00737/) (2022)
- [Can You Still See Me?: Reconstructing Robot Operations Over End-to-End Encrypted Channels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.08426/) (2022)
- [AI Security Threats against Pervasive Robotic Systems: A Course for Next Generation Cybersecurity Workforce](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.07953/) (2023)
- [RoboMal: Malware Detection for Robot Network Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.08470/) (2022)
- [Reconstructing Robot Operations via Radio-Frequency Side-Channel](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.10179/) (2022)
- [Fingerprinting Robot Movements via Acoustic Side Channel](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.10240/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Teleoperated robots are playing an increasingly important role in military actions and medical services. In the future, remotely operated surgical robots will likely be used in more scenarios such as battlefields and emergency response. But rapidly growing applications of teleoperated surgery raise the question; what if the computer systems for these robots are attacked, taken over and even turned into weapons? Our work seeks to answer this question by systematically analyzing possible cyber security attacks against Raven II, an advanced teleoperated robotic surgery system. We identify a slew of possible cyber security threats, and experimentally evaluate their scopes and impacts. We demonstrate the ability to maliciously control a wide range of robots functions, and even to completely ignore or override command inputs from the surgeon. We further find that it is possible to abuse the robot's existing emergency stop (E-stop) mechanism to execute efficient (single packet) attacks. We then consider steps to mitigate these identified attacks, and experimentally evaluate the feasibility of applying the existing security solutions against these threats. The broader goal of our paper, however, is to raise awareness and increase understanding of these emerging threats. We anticipate that the majority of attacks against telerobotic surgery will also be relevant to other teleoperated robotic and co-robotic systems.