When you hear the phrase “wearable” the first things that typically come to mind are wristbands and smartwatches. Wearable technology is now used in a variety of fields, including construction, fitness, and healthcare. Wearable technology has a bright and hopeful future. Wearables are tiny gadgets that users can wear on their bodies to collect useful data from their mini-sensors. The mobile interface that comes with these devices typically provides users with an easy method to view the data, customize the wearable device to meet their needs, and control the sensors.
Today, any IOT app development company is working hard on wearable applications. Wearable technology is available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, so just much anything you can wear now has a wearable alternative. Experts now worry about the potential repercussions of inadequate IoT device security, though. Products that aren’t safe could make consumers and organizations far more susceptible to malware or hacks.
Security Concerns With Wearable Iot Devices
There are three levels of security for wearable IoT devices: the device, the transmission, and the cloud. In general, a computer can be hackable if a hacker has physical access to it. A hacker must, however, rely on a network connection or wireless connections like Bluetooth if he or she does not have physical access to the device. By design, wearable IoT devices are not confined to a single, secure place.
This wearable device can get open to a variety of security risks if it is unintentionally taken away from its rightful owner. A hacker could easily install malware with bad intentions. Through several wireless links that are open to attack, the hacker might take over the system. Following are the security limitations of wearable IoT devices:
1] Encryption and minimal data controls
Many Internet of Things (IoT) devices that gather data store it in an unencrypted format, which means that if hackers obtain access, nothing will stop them from accessing the data. Hackers value individually identifying information from wearables and other sources more and more. They might give up health information that crooks can utilize for upcoming attacks or sell on the dark web.
People may find a combination of location, health, and personally-identifying information provided by GPS trackers and smartwatches useful or desirable. Hackers may find the data from IoT devices to be a lucrative target. Criminals want confidential data on operating statistics, the flow of commodities through a facility, or smart factory operations.
2] Incompatible programs and dependencies
IoT devices need regular upgrades to remain secure, just like any other device. If not, they might eventually become exposed to recently found exploits. IoT devices must be pre-installed with the most recent software and update capabilities so that end users may quickly patch them as necessary. IoT device makers risk leaving their goods open to prevent attacks from trojans if they go out of business and are unable to continue providing security updates for their products.
3] No Access Restrictions
Many wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices come without adequate access control or security measures. Additionally, consumers may not need to update or even be aware of default passwords on their devices, which makes it much simpler to access users’ data.
Most of the time, these things only have one access level, thus once we achieve access privileges, we don’t need additional authorization. If credentials for a device aren’t changed and are public, there can be nothing stopping a hacker from obtaining complete access.
4] Network Attack Surface Has Increased
The attack surface of a network can be significantly increased by vulnerable, internet-connected gadgets. People may exploit insecure IoT devices as a jumping-off point for attacks even if they aren’t interested in the data something collects. Attacks on IoT have steadily increased over the past few years.
The design of IoT devices may also unnecessarily expand the attack surface of the network. A piece of equipment could have ports open for services that are not necessary for it to function, leaving it more hacker-prone than necessary.
5] Device security is not always given priority by manufacturers
A device built for the Internet of Things that has serious security flaws may get worse over time. Developers that don’t provide safe products usually don’t maintain a strong security posture after launch. Customers’ worries, security issues, and newly discovered vulnerabilities could go unanswered by the manufacturer. It may be difficult to communicate with end users, allowing them to fend for themselves in terms of device security.
Best Practices For Wearable Security
- Build detection and isolation of harmful devices. By including built-in encryption and authentication features and implementing whitelist and blacklist policies to regulate data flows, manufacturers should accentuate hardware shortcomings.
- Demand a “security-by-design” strategy. In order to anticipate vulnerabilities and mitigate risks, security should be present in the design process. Security-by-design manufacturers mimic threats throughout the early stages of gadget creation so one can deal with them proactively rather than reactively.
- Make sure the device has defenses. Devices should come with built-in security features including secure boot, safe chipsets, and secure data storage, according to any software development company.
- Give users a mechanism to upgrade software and firmware. This gives a mechanism to update the devices in the field to fend against future attacks when there is a security flaw.
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