[ros-users] REP 122, REP 123, and REP 124: changes to ROS for ROS Fuerte

[Bill Morris]

On Fri, 2012-02-10 at 19:03 -0600, Jack O'Quin wrote:
...

> Security is a big discussion. At some point the robotics community
> will need to address it seriously. People are already starting to hack
> into cars and appliances. I doubt many robotics researchers are
> willing to deal with serious security in a networked environment.
> Someday, we must.

I agree that we have a problem, but sometimes it seems like we will only
make the needed changes after a painful learning process. The current
approach of obscurity and private networks/firewalls will only work for
so long.

If we are going to start securing the network communications, we should
probably try to build something similar to the PGP or SSH model as
opposed to the x.509 PKI model. It is probably easier to manage at a
typical lab and the current certificate authority infrastructure seems
to be in dire need of improvement, both technically and philosophically.

Here is a rambling rant that tried to cover some of the security issues
for robotics.
http://www.iheartrobotics.com/search/label/Please%20Secure%20Your%
20Robot

-- 
Bill Morris <bill at iheartengineering.com>
I Heart Engineering
http://www.iheartengineering.com
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