Do wearables aggravate the security battle for businesses?

Like seen in big Hollywood blockbusters showing off tremendous electronic gadgets (Mr. 007 must long live), futuristic instruments are now becoming a reality as time elapses. The information is greatly stored within mobile tracing devices to be worn as commonly as your own clothes and accessories. Apple watches, Wristband trackers and transaction-enabled devices are being launched as thoughtfully as tiny transmitters used to capture the human voice data.

With that being said, you can say for sure that we are zealously stepping into the utopia with utmost power to change the way we have been living on this very planet earth. Thanks to the audacious new world of wearable technology.

The sad part is, when technology spreads its wings, things get easier. Although things should get better with a revolutionary touch of technology, it will be undeniable to say that every single advancement comes with relevant challenges. There are always certain loopholes that determine the limit of what a particular technology move can do. Companies today are facing the problems pertaining to their cyber security, making their spot in the market vulnerable. So what are they and how wearable technology is causing security threats? Learn more as we discuss further:

Types of wearables popular today are:

1. Smart glasses and headgear
2. Smart watches
3. Fitness trackers
4. Wearable medical devices
5. Smart clothing and accessories

Based on their commercial application, wearable devices usually run on 3 technologies:

• Sensors
• Microprocessors
• Transmitters

Wearables offer more than just tracking
Wearables can be used to do more than just tracking and yield smart data. For example:

1. Smart fitness trackers that can monitor steps walked as well as essential health parameters through standard comparison with ideal health vitals along with email and social media connectivity.
2. Smart watches that ensure mobile payment using the facility of transmission so that you can pay for services of famous food-chains without groping for your wallet.
   

Here comes the crux: Risks posed by Wearables
There are basically three classes of risks usually observed by digital experts, and they are:

1. Cyber access
2. Physical damage
3. Technology errors and omissions.

Although each of the risks mentioned above are equally important, the risk of physical damage is quite relevant to the wearable manufacturer and the accuracy of use by users.

Risk: Cyber access and security risks
Wearable security issues are not new. Cyber crimes and data theft have been the major two concerns of US businesses. These issues create their own brand of risks to businesses.

• Signals and cyber security: If we consider an example of an employee wearing a smart glass technology at work, the problem with the whole setting would be the smart phone that shares network with company with sensitive data of financial bits: credit cards and account details. So the thief can get access to the information exchange happening between smart glasses and cloud storage through Bluetooth. This leads to customer’s login credentials getting stolen by smart thief.
• Corporate spying game: You think it would be less difficult for securing the corporate data? Think again. Consider a business person entering his premise using wearable wireless identity authentication, not knowing there is spy who impersonates as a legal corporate body intercepting the signals. The spy captures executive’s PIN number that enables him to enter the building with same rights as born by the executive. This shows how cyber thieves can attack your corporate activities and gain abundant benefits eventually.
  

Solutions and suggestions
If there are risks, there are ways to minimize them. Businesses can seek specific features in the wearables in order to remain immune to such threats. Here are some of them:

• Customize your security status: You can ask wearable manufacturers to provide you with ability to choose desired level of security at the time of pairing the device with their Smartphone. Confirming your device has latest security settings, you can avoid making your information vulnerable to hackers.
• Remote operating facilities: This feature enables wearable users to remotely disable their device in the event it is lost or stolen. Apple has implemented on this and its most recent version of iPhone contains this. You can demand it from Wearable device manufacturers.
• Risk free Bluetooth encryption: Encrypted Bluetooth could make the exchange of data protected from hackers. When you turn on this feature, Bluetooth enables an encryption API when exchanging data between a device and its target data store, but few companies take advantage of it because it decreases battery life.
• Encryption of critical data elements: User IDs, passwords and PIN numbers are some of the most critical data getting transferred between wearable devices and data storage centers. Presumably, most wearable devices transmit such data with no consideration of encryption.
• Cloud security: Usually, data is conveyed from a wearable device to a Smartphone and then it gets transmitted to cloud data storage. Cloud computing can ensure the safety of the data with diverse operating system, each operating with different security context. This kind of cloud security is most practiced by Banks and you may like to integrate it in your business.
  

Risk: Technical errors and Omissions
No matter how much accuracy and precaution wearable manufacturers show, there will always be a scope of imperfection (a flaw that might have not been considered during the process), errors are something that are inevitable. So here are some of the risks these errors pose:

• Ecommerce site attack: When a smart user connects to accompany network, the possibility of the watch getting affected by malware is higher because of fallibility of the device’s internal software. This increases the DDOS attack risk as the malware infects company network. This eventually leads to Ecommerce site shutting down.
• Device software failure: The problem with wearable virtual reality devices is the uncanny error it faces when users train trucking companies for CDL (commercial driver’s license). The errors will stop the completion of the CDL program, which is a loss of business to trucking companies.

Proposed Solutions
Traveler’s recommend limiting these risks by asking manufacturers to implement security steps. However, there are some common sense suggestions that help minimize the risk potential.

• When malware happens, your ecommerce website must be able to combat it with latest malware detection system that also quarantines the problems.
• Tests always come to rescue. So before you start any training system, it should be tested from both the ends. This saves the time spent in finding the problem and speeds up solution discovery.

Note: Above discussion on cyber security issues are attributed to the report generated by Traveler’s in their Global Technology’s Risk Advisors.