Most of the employees don’t look prepared. to provide robots with total autonomy, as revealed by a Kaspersky study. Research on the consequences of automation with robots and systems based on Artificial Intelligence reflect that the majority of Spanish employees do not believe that production can be recovered immediately, in the event of a cyber attack. or a malfunction. 75% consider that full recovery would take days or even weeks.
Cybercriminals attack companies through emails, virtual spaces and other systems. They continually look for new forms of violation, something that companies must take into account when implementing new technologies such as robotics in the case of their production processes. And it is that, although they increase efficiency, they raise serious concerns in the field of cybersecurity and trust. On this basis, Kaspersky has carried out a survey to collect the opinions of employees who work with robots in Spain, in order to understand the challenges and security problems derived from the use of this type of device in work environments.
According to the study, the majority of employees of Spanish companies that use robots in production they are aware of the risks that this implies for cybersecurity. Only 8% of them believe that robots that stop working due to a cyberattack can be repaired instantly. Half (50%) believe that recovery operations will last weeks, while the most optimistic respondents (25%) believe that production could recover in just a few days.
Concern about the lack of control and regulation of robots and their autonomy
Taking into account the risks that the rapid robotization of work environments may entail, more than half of those surveyed (60%) in Spain say that it is not clear who will take final responsibility in the event that the robots fail due to a glitch or cyberattack. This is one of the reasons why employees prefer humans in positions of responsibility. The majority (76%) believe that robots can increase production efficiency, but only with human supervision, and less than a fifth of workers (17%) are willing to entrust any production process to robots.
“In this study, we have asked respondents not only to assess the level of robotization of companies, but also their ability to resist the cyber risks that these technologies imply. Many employees had mixed feelings about the level of protection of the robots. They are aware that more attention should be paid to their security and are skeptical about how quickly they can recover after a cyber incident. We address concerns about the operation and protection of industrial systems based on the Internet of Things (IoT) with a wide variety of smart devices within the ecosystem. We offer our Cyber Immunity solutions, capable of protecting specific business units or the entire IT system of the organization, which is endowed with immunity against cyber attacks on robots, ICS (Industrial Control Systems) or autonomous machines, and all without using tools specific security. For example, Kaspersky IoT Secure Gateways protect the IT system and securely collect and transmit data from the field to other digital platforms, providing a complete and trusted picture of equipment and production processes.”says Andrey Suvorov, director of the KasperskyOS business unit.
