Japan Famous Hotel Chain Apologizes For Its Vulnerability

According to The Register, Japan hotel chain HIS Group recently issued an apology after it received criticism from the public and the media.

The announcement was made after its’ employees ignored warnings about how hackers could break in and taking control of the robotic staff in the hotel.

Previously, in 2015, HIS Group officially opened the Henn-Na robot hotel in Sasebo city. At that time, this hotel attracted a lot of attention since all the staff working here were robots instead of regular humans.

Particularly, the robots here are humanoid robots or dinosaur robots are placed at the reception. Meanwhile, other robots are deployed in the lobby or moving around the hotel to help customers with their luggage. All of these robots are equipped with facial recognition tech to support and guide the guests to their rooms.

After getting their rooms, if the guests need assistance, they can use the robot that has the shape of a dinosaur egg at the end of the bed.

However, using robots can have potential risks in terms of security. Back in July, cybersecurity expert Lance Wink warned the HIS group about how the hotel’s robots could be remotely attacked by hackers through a security breach.

However, the staff of HIS Group ignored this warning. After 3 months of not receiving any response, all information about this security breach was revealed by Lance Wink on his Twitter account.

According to this expert’s finding, by using NGC card, any application on the robot can be automatically started, allowing bad people to access the robot’s camera and micro to film and eavesdrop on the hotel room. This also means that the private footage of hotel guests may be exposed and uploaded on the Internet.

But, according to the HIS Group, the risk of unauthorized access is quite small. The robots are receiving a software update to patch the security vulnerability.

The announcement comes when the hotel group is planning on building 8 more robot hotels. The leaders of HIS Group state that using robots can help the hotels cut down on salary costs as well as recruiting and training costs.