NASA Research Park, Moffett Field, CA – 2nd February 2014 - CSO Online published a relevant article about securing the connected robotic and industrial machine environment - "The Internet of Robotic Things: Secure, harmless helpers or vulnerable, vicious foes?". The article discusses the growth of connected robots in manufacturing and in the home as well as the security challenges that are part of this robotic ecosystem.
In this article, M2Mi's Sarah Cooper discusses the security challenges of such autonomous systems, the new problems coming from the "data plane" compared to the relative security of the old "control plane", as well as how sensors can be spoofed resulting in undesirable outcomes.
She also discusses a few approaches to enhance security including understanding the context across multiple devices to validate what any one robotic sensor tells us, confirming data provenance of where sensor/device data came from, who touched it and if can be trusted.
You can read the full article here from CSO Online magazine.