Most employees say that robots free them from doing physically demanding or dangerous work amid job loss concerns due to rising adoption of AI in the workplace, a new study has revealed.

Kaspersky says that feedbacks have been mixed from a study conducted to learn the opinion of employees of manufacturing companies and other large organisations around the world about the consequences of automation and increased use of robots.

The goal, Kaspersky says, was to see what employees think about the security of robots and automated systems from respondents across Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Egypt, and South Africa.

Most often the respondents from the META region noted the benefits of automation to employees’ health: 62% said that robots free employees from doing physically demanding or dangerous work. 51% stated that robots increased the efficiency of production processes and brought economic benefits to the organisation. 40% believed robotisation opened opportunities for employees to retrain for more interesting and higher paid positions, and 37% said it reduced the likelihood of accidents due to the human factor.

AI use is on the rise, which poses a risk to the existence of many jobs across regions, according to Kaspersky which notes that recently the ChatGPT bot was made available to the public – it can maintain a coherent conversation, explain complex scientific concepts, artistically translate texts between languages, and much more. 

Other types of robots have been among people for years, washing cars, delivering orders, sorting goods in warehouses, delivering pills to patients, doing assembly works at plants. 

Kaspersky research discovers that there are concerns among employees in the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa region in regards to robots and automation systems used by companies. 

More than half of those surveyed in the META region (55%) are afraid of losing their job to a robot, and every fifth employee (22%) reported they heard of cybersecurity incidents with robots or automated systems in their company. At the same time, many employees see the positive aspects that robotisation brings to them.

“Back in 2017 at the Black Hat conference, researchers Billy Rios and Jonathan Butts demonstrated how to hack an automatic car wash and what threat this poses to humans. They studied a PDQ LaserWash automatic car wash system, which can be connected to the internet, and found a way to hijack it. They even showed that it’s possible to slam the bay door into a car, which could endanger not only the vehicle, but also the driver,” Brandon Muller, Technical Expert at Kaspersky says.

“While some individuals and organisations are wary of automatisation and refrain from using it, others adapt their processes to get the most benefits from the newest technologies. As further business digitisation is inevitable, companies around the world need to explore how to make automated solutions more secure and efficient for business needs.”

Robots: How to protect industrial computer systems from threats: Kaspersky experts recommend:

·          Conducting regular security assessments of OT systems to identify and eliminate possible cyber security issues.

·          Establishing continuous vulnerability assessment and triage as a basement for effective vulnerability management process. Dedicated solutions like Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity may become an efficient assistant and a source of unique actionable information, not fully available in public.

·          Performing timely updates of key components to the company’s OT network; applying security fixes and patches or implementing measures to compensate as soon as it is technically possible. This is crucial to preventing a major incident that might cost millions due to the disruptions to the production process.

·          Using Industrial EDR solutions such as Kaspersky Industrial Cybersecurity for Nodes with EDR for timely detection of sophisticated threats, investigation, and effective remediation of incidents.

·          Enhance your response to new and advanced malicious techniques by developing and strengthening the incident prevention, detection, and response skills of your teams. Dedicated OT security training for IT security teams and OT personnel is one of the key measures to help to achieve this goal.