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10 Ways Wearables Put Your Network in Serious Danger

By Sue Marquette Poremba, Posted September 11, 2015
  • 10 Ways Wearables Put Your Network in Serious Danger-

    Paired Connections

    Bluetooth and Wi-Fi communication between wearable devices and paired smartphones presents a significant area of vulnerability, according to Paula Skokowski, security expert with Accellion. Although wireless connections have improved, hackers are always coming up with new ways to break in and intercept data. A lack of built-in PIN protection or security fingerprinting provides hackers, through persistent trial and error, the opportunity to attempt a variety of username and password combinations until they crack the code and are able to access content stored on devices.

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10 Ways Wearables Put Your Network in Serious Danger

By Sue Marquette Poremba, Posted September 11, 2015
  • 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
  • 10 Ways Wearables Put Your Network in Serious Danger-10

    Paired Connections

    Bluetooth and Wi-Fi communication between wearable devices and paired smartphones presents a significant area of vulnerability, according to Paula Skokowski, security expert with Accellion. Although wireless connections have improved, hackers are always coming up with new ways to break in and intercept data. A lack of built-in PIN protection or security fingerprinting provides hackers, through persistent trial and error, the opportunity to attempt a variety of username and password combinations until they crack the code and are able to access content stored on devices.

Wearable devices aren’t quite as ubiquitous as smartphones – at least not yet. IDC predicts that the wearables market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 45 percent between now and 2019. Fitness bands are the most popular wearables at the moment, but smart watches and other technologies are expected to increase over the next few years. We can expect wearables to play a large role in health care and sports training. Within the business setting, wearables can be used for authentication purposes or to assist in different hands-on or machine-based tasks, including interfacing with computers and other smart devices.

The growth of wearables, of course, means more devices connecting to the company network, increasing security risks. Users of wearables are already voicing concern that hackers want to steal the data generated and transmitted. But IT and security leaders need to be concerned, too. Sam Rehman, CTO of Arxan Technologies, stated:

Wearable devices may be putting many enterprise security professionals on their heels; they are the newest challenge in a BYOD workplace. These devices increase the attack surface and could become vulnerable targets that could allow unauthorized access to an enterprise's sensitive information. Defining tight enterprise security policies for the use of wearables and their access to corporate data is essential.

Let’s take a look at what security professionals think are the most serious weaknesses that wearable computing devices are introducing into networks.