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A new report released by the US Department of Health and Human Services argues that the ubiquitous nature of health apps and wearable technologies has led to gaps in consumer privacy, which are regulated by the watershed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

The report said: “New types of entities that collect, share, and use health information are not regulated by HIPAA. Health information is increasingly collected, shared, or used by new types of...

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Researchers from Binghamton University and the Stevens Institute of Technology have revealed that wearable devices have the ability to leak passwords.

In the paper, titled “Friend or Foe?: Your Wearable Devices Reveal Your Personal PIN”, the researchers collated data from embedded sensors in wearable technologies, such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, along with a computer algorithm to ascertain PINs and passwords. The team managed to crack the pin on the first attempt...

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Spiceworks has released a study which argues a majority of IT professionals (53%) hold wearables are the foremost source of security breaches among IoT devices connected to their network.

Companies connecting wearables to their network have seen a nearly 100% increase, rising from 13% to 24% since Spiceworks released its 2014 IoT report. Video equipment (50%), physical security (46%) and appliances (45%) are the other sources liable to attack.

Only around 33% of organisations are busy...

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Kaspersky Lab has introduced a new version of its Internet Security for Android product to also facilitate management of protection through Android Wear devices, as well as improving performance speed and protection quality.

The new version allows a user’s smartwatch to show notifications from Kaspersky Internet Security for Android when it is installed on a paired smartphone or tablet. A user can also remotely give commands to the product on the watch by pressing keys on the...

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More than two thirds (69%) of wearable device owners say they do not use login credentials, while over half (56%) say they use their devices to access business apps, according to new data released by Centrify.

The study, which polled 100 attendees at the RSA Conference, found that while a major cause of concern remains the fact that though wearable owners do not use login credentials and get ready access to corporate data, 42% of respondents say that identity theft is their foremost...

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The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has examined potential security vulnerabilities in wearable devices in its latest report.

The study, entitled “WearFit: Security Design Analysis of a Wearable Fitness Tracker”, makes use of a fabricated wearable fitness tracking system, dubbed WearFit, in order to illustrate these flaws via a security analysis.

The report uses the fictitious wearable in context with what IEEE perceives to be the top 10 software...

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In a test conducted by the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and its Citizen Lab, a wide range of wearable devices revealed data which can be used to find the exact location of a user, and even offered up passwords and usernames by installed apps. 

The researchers conducted tests on eight devices; the Apple Watch, Basis Peak, Fitbit Charge HR, Garmin...

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Imagine you are the chief security officer for a large enterprise organisation and you suddenly find a small TV crew working its way through your offices, panning a video camera back and forth, recording who knows what: product schedules on white boards, financial reports lying about on desks, an org chart pinned to a wall, customer data displayed on screens—all sorts of confidential information. There would be an audio track, as well, recording hallway conversations...

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With the very real prospect of smartwatches and smart eyewear entering the workplace in the coming years, the potential productivity gains need to be taken with a pinch of salt in terms of protecting corporate data.

That much is self-evident; but Kate Bischoff, attorney at Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP, argues that wearables “require mindful adoption” from employers and that the risks, in a legal context are “real.”

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A survey of 1,000 UK adults from KPMG has found that though privacy concerns remain, consumers are open to sharing health data with certain entities.

74% of respondents were ready to share health data collected via wearable or fitness band with their GP, and almost half of the respondents were open to the NHS streamlining storage of medical records at a single national database to facilitate access to medical practitioners across the country.

However, only 7% were open to wearable data...

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After being touted as “the next big thing” for some time, wearable technology has captured the attention of the consumer. The big question is – what should developers and marketers consider from a legal and regulatory perspective if they’re developing or using wearables?

While the ability to summon a taxi or order a pizza at the flick of the wrist may be a...

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At present there is a huge amount of apprehension surrounding wearable technology in the UK as many people are hesitant to invest in them because of privacy fears.

To try to shed some light on this scepticism, several studies have been conducted into privacy and wearable technology. A major study by cloud computing company Rackspace found that 51 per cent of...

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Enterprise employees are looking more and more at using wearable technology in the workplace. A recent piece of research showed that males aged 18-34 and those with children at home are most interested. They either own a wearable or want to buy one – and they want to use it at work.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as that. More research papers than you can shake a stick at warn of the dangers of connecting business-critical data to smartwatches. It’s not just the...

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To ensure the connectivity of wearable devices, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) appears to be the way to go – with limited computing power, the clue is in the name. Yet a recent post from Context Information Security has fired a warning shot over privacy issues in the BLE protocol.

Titled ‘The emergence of Bluetooth Low Energy’, the post addresses how scanning for devices running off BLE...

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With the release of the Apple Watch, wearable smart devices are rapidly becoming this year's hot technology accessory, but security experts warn that the data they collect is a gold mine for hackers. More than 420,000 wearable devices were sold in 2014 and the Consumer Electronics Association is predicting a 61% increase in wearables sold this year.

Since wearable...

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During yesterday's "Spring Forward" event from Apple, we saw for ourselves how our smartwatches will be remote controls for the smart home to open doors around the home. The question is, are you concerned this could be exploited by a hacker?

Apple's debut watch, as most current smartwatches, uses both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology. The capabilities of the watch and the information it holds...

Most devices on the market use Bluetooth to communicate, and therefore rely on a six-digit PIN code to authenticate between them. This represents approximately one million possible keys which with today's computing power is simple to crack and allow an attacker access to private data about the user without consent.

The researchers showed how information from the wearable device could be revealed in plain text

Other than just notifications, wearable devices are collecting data such as...

The wearable sector is seeing its growth fuelled by fitness devices which are able to track our location, heart rate, and even specific movements. This of course has led to security and privacy concerns, but what if your device could end up putting you away for some time in the slammer?

It’s not much of a surprise that law enforcement want access to the data from our devices and cloud services as we live increasingly digital lives.

A personal injury lawyer in Canada has used data from a Fitbit smartwatch to...

Security analysts at Symantec have found that they were able to track users who engaged in the ‘quantified self’, or tracked their lives using fitness or health apps, by using a $75 product dubbed the ‘Blueberry Pi’.

The security bods mashed together a Raspberry Pi (price: $35), a battery pack, a Bluetooth USB dongle and a 4GB SD card to create a device which could track these apps and can be built by “anybody with basic IT skills.”

These portable Bluetooth scanners were...