Potential Security Issues of Wearable Devices
Here’re Some of the Security Issues of Wearable Devices to Watch Out For
From the past few years, technology has seen significant advancement characterized by alternative network solutions, novel sensors, efficiency in power sources, and among them, wearable devices development has also boosted.
A wearable device, also called Wearable Technology (WT), is a type of computing technology-based device that can be worn on our human body. For example, the wrist is quite an ideal location in the form of a smartwatch. It has become extremely popular in many application domains, including entertainment, healthcare, and security.
It provides new opportunities for continuous monitoring of human activity through the small sensors attached to it. Due to such popularity, nowadays it even becomes cheaper and more accessible than before, thus becomes quite common.
These wearable devices, such as Fitbit or Samsung smartwatches, to name a few, are not mature enough in terms of security and privacy, which does create challenges. For instance, these wearable devices are most of the time connected with many cloud apps, which can become a launching point for any attack.
A few years earlier, it has even been surveyed that such wearable devices like Google Glass, Fitbit Devices, and Samsung smartwatches are prone to some attacks, which can lead to serious damages.
Here’s the Short Snippet of Security Issues Found in Wearable Devices
| Wearable Devices | Security Issues | Prone to Attacks |
|---|---|---|
| Google Glass | PIN system or authentication is not secured enough. | Offered gesture-based authentication can easily be recorded by nearby people. |
| Privacy-related issues. For example, unauthorized eye-movement tracking and videos can be recorded without consent. | Attacks like eavesdropping and spyware. | |
| Relies upon QR codes for setting up Wi-Fi. | Malware to photo bomb QR codes. | |
| Unsecure networks. | Attacks like man-in-the-middle attack like session hijacking or sniffing, Wi-Fi-hijacking. | |
| Fitbit Devices | Authentication is not good enough. | Attacks like Denial of Service (DoS), battery drain hacks, or data injection.q |
| BTLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) technology leaks. | It can lead to an easy track. | |
| Concerns with user’s privacy, a user’s location, or visited places can be tracked. | Phishing. | |
| Samsung Smartwatch | Unsecured authentication. | Brute force attack. |
By looking at the above table, it’s easy to figure out that without proper security authentication, wearable devices can be exploited to attacks like Brute force, Phishing, Eavesdropping, and MiTM.
Some Other Security Risks of Wearable Devices
When we talk about businesses, data security becomes far more important compared to an individual, and due to this, organizations must be cautious of such devices. However, below are some of the security-related issues which shouldn’t be overlooked:
- One of the critical issues with wearable devices is that most of them fail to meet compliance and regulations such as HIPAA. Further, it even has certain loopholes mainly created by the communication channel that deploys these devices. Some basic security features, like PIN protection or security fingerprint, makes it quite easy for malicious cybercriminals to access the data.
- These wearable devices have limited user interface, making it quite hard for improving features of apps that make these wearable devices run.
- Lack of proper BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies in organizations: Many policies haven’t been updated correctly, which makes it quite difficult for the IT department to tackle problems related to wearable devices, which leads to difficulty in optimizing security and authentication aspects.
Solutions to Prevent Risks of Wearable Devices
By looking above, it can be said that you may have a glimpse of security and privacy in wearable devices, due to which security issues occur.
Though there must be some solutions too. Let’s look at some of them:
Proper BYOD Policy
If you’re allowing wearable devices within organization premises, then its suggested organization implements proper BYOD policy, which can help to define how wearable devices must be used at the workplace, so it doesn’t impact anything negatively. If you’re already using it, then it would be better to revise it once so it doesn’t come across any security issues which could’ve been avoided.
Authentication
Implementing password authentication may not sound very secure, but still, it’s important to protect your data if your wearable device used at the workplace gets stolen or lost. In other words, it’s best to configure wearable devices with passwords as the first security step before you implement any other security validation.
Proper Management of Wearable Devices
The good thing is that IT departments are capable of managing many Android-based wearable devices. Mobile Device Management (MDM) platforms are quite affordable. It also gives the ability to the IT team to perform several tasks on these wearable devices like to wipe out data, executing passwords, controlling apps in a way that it can’t be misused, which helps in protecting organization’s data.
Applications to Control Lost of Devices
Many wearable devices come with loss control apps pre-installed, and it’s equally important to activate such apps before using the device in the office premises. If the device doesn’t have such apps, it’s suggested to install and activate it before making use of these wearable devices. It’ll prove beneficial by wiping data remotely or even tracking the device if any incident occurs, such as a wearable device got stolen, or it’s lost.
Things Manufacturers Must Do to Make Wearable Devices More Secured
Similar to users, manufactures of the wearable devices also have the responsibility to make their devices secured, and they should take care of certain things like:
- They should ensure that their security professionals are vigilant regarding the security of these wearable and mobile devices and also acknowledge the latest security threats about it.
- When it comes to security vendors, manufacturers must go with those who are specialized in the security of mobile as well as wearable devices.
- They should implement proper authentication protocols, which control biometric technology as well as ID & password combination security to protect from attacks such as breaches and phishing attacks.
- Manufacturers should also take responsibility for investing in fraud prevention solutions as well as digital authentication.
Summary
Everyone loves technology and likes to use new devices and gadgets, and among them, wearable devices are quite popular these days. No doubt, it gives ease in many things, but it’s also important that it must offer the superior level of security as security threats are on quite rise too.
Here, in this post, we’ve looked for the same, for example, some of the security threats which you must be aware of as a user before using these wearable devices, especially when you make use of it within your organization. How manufacturers can make these wearable devices more secure and what’re some of the steps you can take to prevent those security issues.