User:JTBrowne/sandbox

Robot-Assisted surgery as developed from the late 90's to now. Laparoscopy will soon be a runner up in surgical procedures. Full scale robots like the teleoperate RAVEN II and the stationary Da Vinci SI (surgical instrument) overtake most surgical procedures. As technology advances, the question of security must be adequately addressed.

Teleoperated surgical robot systems like the RAVEN II that are on open networks (and therefore unprotected networks) may be subject to hacking. A group of researchers at the University of Washington tested various malicious attacks on the RAVEN II teleoperated surgical robot. "Denial of Service" attacks were able to target the machine and fill its system with useless packets of data, clogging its pathways. "Man in the middle" attacks targeted command and inputs, effectively disrupting connections between operator and robot. The robot became jerky and harder to use in some cases. At one point, they were able to completely trigger the emergency stop mechanism on the computer.

The reprise is that most surgical robots such as the Da Vinci SI, are stationary and on private networks.