This paper is one of the few reported studies on the security of robotic operating systems. As such, it has clear value to make robotic system designers and users aware of the need for security in these systems.

Dieber et al. analyze possible threats and then provide corresponding defenses using a secure publish/subscribe framework and cryptography. They analyze the possibility of controlling security at the application level and find the need to complement it with communications security. They also provide an interesting discussion of the value of accountability for security. They do not attempt to do a systematic threat enumeration, but select a few cases (unauthorized publishing of data or commands, unauthorized data access, and denial of service) to illustrate their defenses. They should have emphasized more the need for a systematic threat enumeration as in [1,2].

This is a useful introduction to robot security for robotic researchers in particular, but also for cyber-physical system (CPS) security researchers.