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Home and factory robots can be hacked to harm humans
Last month, cybersecurity firm IOActive let everyone know that Segway MiniPro hoverboards were vulnerable to hacks and outside control via their Bluetooth connections. Now it has revealed that industrial robots from Universal Robots and consumer models from Softbank Group and UBTech Robotics also have some troubling security flaws that can allow hackers to "modify safety settings, violating applicable safety laws and, consequently, causing physical harm to the robot's surroundings by moving it arbitrarily," according to a report published by the company today.
Hackers can take control of your Segway hoverboard
We can list so many reasons why you should never set foot on a hoverboard. Now, we've got yet another: Cybersecurity company IOActive has figured out how to hijack the Segway MiniPro "self-balancing personal transporter" through its Bluetooth connection.
Apple quietly hires security guru who may have saved Windows Vista
Apple has had to take security more seriously when a larger user base and the cloud have opened up greater risks. Thanks to a just-discovered hire, we now know 1 Infinite Loop isn't messing around. While many of us were fixated on new iPhones in September, the company was quietly recruiting Kristin Paget as a Core OS Security Researcher. She's had stints at eBay and Google, but she's best-known for helping Microsoft while she was a security researcher at IOActive: not only did her team burst the bubble of Windows Vista engineers who thought their code was airtight, the group ultimately delayed the entire OS release to get security up to snuff. Given that Vista avoided most of the malware chaos that affected Windows XP even after Service Pack 2, Paget bodes well for the future protection of Apple's platforms. Just don't expect her to talk shop when she's a security expert at a firm that tends to really, really value its secrecy. [Image credit: Kristin Paget, Twitter]
