https://archive.is/hsCE1
"I’m lying in the dirt. It’s coming for me. Then, with a lurch, it’s climbing
up my chest. If Andreas Makris doesn’t stop the 200-pound robot lawn mower in
time, it could drag its blades across my body.
Makris certainly can’t reach over and hit the emergency stop button — he’s
nearly 6,000 miles away, having hacked this robot from the other side of the
planet, to demonstrate the gaping security holes in Yarbo’s robot lawn mowers.
And I’ve made the questionable decision of lying down in the mower’s path — to
see just how far Makris, the security researcher who discovered those flaws, is
able to push the mower.
By the time the mower touches my body, Makris has already proven his point: the
$5,000 robot lawn mowers from Yarbo have such ridiculous security
vulnerabilities that a foreign hacker can easily hijack a bladed gadget in the
United States. And not just one. Thousands upon thousands of bladed Chinese
robots at his beck and call. Every Yarbo robot around the world, whether
configured to churn through grass, snow, or weeds, is theoretically reporting
to him now.
“I can do whatever I want with all the bots,” Makris tells
The Verge. “It’s
completely unsecured.”
And believe it or not, remote control is just the tip of the iceberg."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Cybersecurity: May 12, 2026
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-12-158044076
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
