Read More: Hackers Can Now Use Your Phone Sensors to Steal Your PIN Info

What Malware Threats Do Robots Face?

Robots are embedded systems, meaning they are a computing system constructed within a larger system. As an embedded system, these machines are vulnerable to a number of different attacks including hardware attacks, firmware or OS attacks, and application attacks. In addition, many robots rely on insecure methods of communication and lack acceptable cryptographic standards. While there has yet to be a major cyber attack against robots, researchers have successfully hacked a teleoperated surgical robot, pointing to a real possibility of robotic cyber attacks in the future.

Potential Impact of Robotic Cyber Security Attacks

Many robots operate in close proximity to people and as such, a cyber attack poses a danger to the humans directly interacting with these machines. A hijacked military drone could be rerouted to target civilian populations while an automated vehicle could be manipulated to override collision avoidance software.

In recent years, the number of manufacturing jobs held by robots has increased, hovering around 10 percent. Should a cyber attack dismantle robots in manufacturing settings, such an attack would drastically alter or potentially halt production at assembly plants.

Mitigating Robotic Cyber Security Threats

To mitigate the possibility of cyber attacks, robotic manufacturing employees should strictly limit access to sensitive material regarding robot hardware. Robot manufacturers should also consider implementing a common, standardized operating system and create a council to oversee security issues and updates to the operating system. Most importantly, robot manufacturers should turn their attention to creating a secure application code and placing emphasis on cybersecurity considerations throughout the design and development stages. While these changes likely won’t happen overnight, researchers and security experts agree that robot cybersecurity should be a priority moving forward.

While technological advancement helps society overall, every new piece of technology certainly has its drawbacks. In this case, it’s lost jobs. It’s important to find out if your profession is at risk of becoming obsolete because of technology. If so, you may want to start looking into learning some new skills. Here are five examples of jobs that might not survive modern technological advances.

Read More: The Future of Robotic Surgery: A Look at Where We Are

1. Switchboard Operators

Switchboard operator jobs have obviously declined for decades. But today, they still use business systems to relay calls to their intended users. Jobs in this profession are expected to diminish by over 30% by 2024. Automated communication technology is the biggest reason this profession is becoming obsolete, because users can use this kind of software to keep track of their calls.

2. Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

These workers operate machines to cast plastic parts or products in factories and manufacturing plants across the country. By 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that this profession will decline by 25%. These workers are primarily being replaced by machines, like numerically-controlled machines, tools, and robots that are less expensive than employing people.

3. Lumberjack

A lumberjack — a person who cuts down trees or directs machines to log forests — will become less common as technology allows users to communicate using digital means instead of paper. While digital technologies are more environmentally-friendly, workers in the lumberjack profession are expected to decline by nine-percent into 2022.

4. Fast-Food Cook

It might seem surprising that fast food cooks could be replaced with advanced technology. However, low-level fast food cooks — the people who flip hamburgers and deep-fry french fries — could be replaced by advanced machines that can do the same things. According to Forbes, we might see jobs in this field decrease by nearly four percent.

5. Taxi Dispatcher

Do-It-Yourself driving technologies like Lyft and Uber have hurt the taxi-driving industry significantly already. New technologies like car-sharing services will hurt the industry further, and eventually, dispatchers might be replaced entirely by apps that can dispatch taxis to riders in need, making the profession entirely obsolete.

The da Vinci Surgical System

Most urological surgical procedures are performed using the da Vinci Surgical System. Only about 10 years old, this futuristic looking system comes replete with robotic arms and an endoscopic camera that helps to provide a 3D display. The surgeon monitors her work via the camera and a set of controls to guide the robot. In one hand the robot holds the camera, while its other two hands are reserved for performing the procedure. The surgeon performs her work remotely, guiding the surgical instruments in the robot’s hands.  

Read More: Experience a Concert with Virtual Reality

During surgery, necessary incisions lead to scarring and long recovery times. However, with robotic surgery, doctors are able to work less invasively and with greater precision. The motions made by the surgeon remotely are enhanced by the robot as it acts upon those gestures. In other words, the robot is able to grasp what’s intended and make it more precise. Additionally, the camera and 3D display allow doctors to operate in a magnified work space, improving upon their efficiency as well.

Internal Robotics

Another form of surgical robotics seeks to perform surgeries entirely inside the body. Developed mostly to treat diseases like cancer, the idea is to insert the miniature robot directly into the body through a small incision and work from there. This represents the natural evolution in a doctor’s use of micro-cameras to aid in the medical process.

Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR)

Much like da Vinci, STAR promises expert precision. Designed with incredible sensitivity in its functionality, as suturing requires adaptability to subtle changes in tissue, the accuracy is unparalleled. Taking it one step further, this advancement in robotic surgery is an autonomous one. Able to work on its own, the robot would take over stitching up soft tissues, applying the programmed technique of the industry’s finest. An especially rigorous yet monotonous task, the robot can alleviate a surgeon’s growing fatigue by taking over this work. Still in its trial stage, the future of surgical robotics is already proving to be a huge leap for the industry.