Skip to main content

Wearables Security and Privacy

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Mission-Oriented Sensor Networks and Systems: Art and Science

Part of the book series: Studies in Systems, Decision and Control ((SSDC,volume 164))

Abstract

Wearable devices equipped with various embedded sensors are finding many applications in health care and other sectors. As a relatively new class of mobile computing, there is little experience with security and privacy problems. This chapter aims to bring attention to these important but somewhat overlooked issues. We describe the components in wearables (sensors, processors, software, and communications) and highlight the security issues related to wireless protocols, vulnerabilities, and privacy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Al Alkeem, E., Yeun, C.Y., Zemerly, M.J.: Security and privacy framework for ubiquitous healthcare IoT devices. In: 10th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transctions (ICITST), pp. 70–75. IEEE (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Alliance, Z.: Zigbee alliance. http://www.zigbee.org

  3. Amorim, V.J.P., Delabrida, S., Oliveira, R.A.R.: A constraint-driven assessment of operating systems for wearable devices. In: VI Brazilian Symposium on Computing Systems Engineering (SBESC), pp. 150–155. IEEE (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Android: Android wear. https://www.android.com/intl/en_uk/wear/

  5. ANT: The wireless sensor network solution this is ant. https://www.thisisant.com

  6. Aoyagi, T., Miyasaka, K.: Pulse oximetry: its invention, contribution to medicine, and future tasks. Anesth. Analg. 94(1 Suppl), S1 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Arias, O., Wurm, J., Hoang, K., Jin, Y.: Privacy and security in Internet of Things and wearable devices. IEEE Trans. Multi-Scale Comput. Syst. 1(2), 99–109 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. ARMmbed: mbed os. https://www.mbed.com/en/platform/mbed-os/

  9. Baldini, F.: Invasive sensors in medicine. In: Optical Chemical Sensors, pp. 417–435. Springer (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Blasco, J., Chen, T.M., Tapiador, J., Peris-Lopez, P.: A survey of wearable biometric recognition systems. ACM Comput. Surv. (CSUR) 49(3), 43:1–35 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Boll, S., Pulsipher, D.: Suppression of acoustic noise in speech using two microphone adaptive noise cancellation. IEEE Trans. Acoust. Speech Signal Process. 28(6), 752–753 (1980)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Bouhenguel, R., Mahgoub, I., Ilyas, M.: Bluetooth security in wearable computing applications. In: International Symposium on High Capacity Optical Networks and Enabling Technologies, pp. 182–186. IEEE (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Braasch, M.S., Van Dierendonck, A.J.: Gps receiver architectures and measurements. Proc. IEEE 87(1), 48–64 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Catalano, J.T.: Guide to ECG analysis. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Chatterjee, A., Aceves, A., Dungca, R., Flores, H., Giddens, K.: Classification of wearable computing: a survey of electronic assistive technology and future design. In: 2nd International Conference on Research in Computational Intellegence and Communication Networks (ICRCICN), pp. 22–27. IEEE (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Cornacchia, M., Ozcan, K., Zheng, Y., Velipasalar, S.: A survey on activity detection and classification using wearable sensors. IEEE Sens. J. 17(2), 386–403 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Cruz, R.J., Reis, T.B., Aranha, D.F., Kupwade Patil, H.: Lightweight cryptography on arm. In: NIST Lightweight Cryptography Workshop. NIST (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Das, A.K., Pathak, P.H., Chuah, C.N., Mohapatra, P.: Uncovering privacy leakage in ble network traffic of wearable fitness trackers. In: 17th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Application, HotMobile ’16, pp. 99–104. ACM (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Di Pietro, R., Mancini, L.V.: Security and privacy issues of handheld and wearable wireless devices. Commun. ACM 46(9), 74–79 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Diffie, W., Hellman, M.: New directions in cryptography. IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 22(6), 644–654 (1976)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  21. Dunning, J.P.: Taming the blue beast: a survey of bluetooth based threats. IEEE Secur. Priv. 8(2), 20–27 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Forum, N.: Nfc forum. http://nfc-forum.org

  23. Gao, W., Emaminejad, S., Nyein, H.Y.Y., Challa, S., Chen, K., Peck, A., Fahad, H.M., Ota, H., Shiraki, H., Kiriya, D.: Fully integrated wearable sensor arrays for multiplexed in situ perspi- ration analysis. Nature 529(7587), 509–514 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Gartner: Gartner says worldwide wearable devices sales to grow 18.4 percent in 2016 (2016). http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3198018

  25. Ghamari, M., Arora, H., Sherratt, R.S., Harwin, W.: Comparison of low-power wireless communication technologies for wearable health-monitoring applications. In: 2015 International Conference on Computer, Communication, and Control Technology (I4CT), pp. 1–6. IEEE (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Ghosh, S., Goswami, J., Kumar, A., Majumder, A.: Issues in NFC as a form of contactless communication: a comprehensive survey. In: International Conference on Smart Technology and Management for Computing, Communication, Controls, Energy and Materials (ICSTM), pp. 245–252. IEEE (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Gomez, C., Oller, J., Paradells, J.: Overview and evaluation of bluetooth low energy: an emerging low-power wireless technology. Sensors 12(9), 11734–11753 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Goyal, R., Dragoni, N., Spognardi, A.: Mind the tracker you wear: a security analysis of wearable health trackers. In: 31st Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC ’16), pp. 131–136. ACM (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Gupta, N.K.: Inside Bluetooth Low Energy. Artech House (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Haselsteiner, E., Breitfuß, K.: Security in near field communication (NFC). In: Workshop on RFID security, pp. 12–14 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Islam, N., Want, R.: Smartphones: past, present, and future. IEEE Pervasive Comput. 13(4), 89–92 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Islam, S.K., Fathy, A., Wang, Y., Kuhn, M., Mahfouz, M.: Hassle-free vitals. IEEE Microw. Mag. 15(7), S25–S33 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Jiang, H., Chen, X., Zhang, S., Zhang, X., Kong, W., Zhang, T.: Software for wearable devices: challenges and opportunities. In: IEEE 39th Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference, pp. 592–597. IEEE (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Ko, M., Goeckel, D.L.: Wireless physical-layer security performance of UWB systems. In: IEEE MILCOM 2010, pp. 2143–2148. IEEE (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Koblitz, N.: Elliptic curve cryptosystems. Math. Comput. 48, 203–209 (1987)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  36. Labrador, M.A., Yejas, O.D.L.: Human Activity Recognition Using Wearable Sensors and Smartphones. Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Labs, M.: Linkit assist 2502. https://labs.mediatek.com/en/platform/linkit-assist-2502

  38. Lara, O.D., Labrador, M.A.: A survey on human activity recognition using wearable sensors. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 15(3), 1192–1209 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Ltd, A.: Arm processors. http://www.arm.com/products/processors

  40. Ltd, A.: A system-wide approach to security. https://www.arm.com/products/security-on-arm/trustzone

  41. Moody, G., Mark, R., Bump, M., Weinstein, J., Berman, A., Mietus, J., Goldberger, A.: Clinical validation of ecg-derived respiration (edr) technique. Comput. Cardiol. 13, 507–510 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Mosenia, A., Sur-Kolay, S., Raghunathan, A., Jha, N.K.: Wearable medical sensor-based system design: a survey. IEEE Trans. Multi-Scale Comput. Syst. PP(99), 1–1 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Moyer, J., Wilson, D., Finkelstein, I., Wong, B., Potts, R.: Correlation between sweat glucose and blood glucose in subjects with diabetes. Diabetes Technol. Ther. 14(5), 398–402 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Nourbakhsh, N., Wang, Y., Chen, F., Calvo, R.A.: Using galvanic skin response for cognitive load measurement in arithmetic and reading tasks. In: 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, pp. 420–423. ACM (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  45. Pantelopoulos, A., Bourbaki, N.G.: A survey on wearable sensor-based systems for health monitoring and prognosis. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part C (Appl. Rev.) 40(1), 1–12 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Paul, G., Irvine, J.: Privacy implications of wearable health devices. In: 7th International Conference on Security of Infomation and Networks (SIN ’14), pp. 117:117–121. ACM (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Perera, C., Liu, C.H., Jayawardena, S.: The emerging Internet of Things marketplace from an industrial perspective: a survey. IEEE Trans. Emerg. Topics Comput. 3(4), 585–598 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Preuveneers, D., Joosen, W.: Privacy-enabled remote health monitoring applications for resource constrained wearable devices. In: 31st Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC ’16), pp. 119–124. ACM (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Qualcomm: Snapdragon wear 2100 processor product brief. https://www.qualcomm.com/documents/snapdragon-wear-2100-processor-product-brief

  50. Rahman, M., Carbunar, B., Topkara, U.: Secure management of low power fitness trackers. IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput. 15(2), 447–459 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Ray, S., Park, J., Bhunia, S.: Wearables, implants, and Internet of Things: the technology needs in the evolving landscap. IEEE Trans. Multi-Scale Comput. Syst. 2(2), 123–128 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Roggen, D., Perez, D.G., Fukumoto, M., van Laerhoven, K.: Iswc 2013—wearables are here to stay. IEEE Pervasive Comput. 13(1), 14–18 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Roman, R., Najera, P., Lopez, J.: Securing the Internet of Things. IEEE Comput. 44(9), 51–58 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Romano, S.M., Pistolesi, M.: Assessment of cardiac output from systemic arterial pressure in humans. Crit. Care Med. 30(8), 1834–1841 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. RoweBots: Wearableos. https://rowebots.com/en/products/wearableos-unison-wearable-operating-system

  56. Ryan, M., et al.: Bluetooth: with low energy comes low security. In: WOOT (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  57. Salvo, P., Francesco, F.D., Constanzo, D., Ferrari, C., Trivella, M.G., Rossi, D.D.: A wearable sensor for measuring sweat rate. IEEE Sens. J. 10(10), 1557–1558 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Samsung: Exynos 9 series (8895). http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/Exynos/w/solution/mod_ap/8895/

  59. Sazonov, E., Neuman, M.R.: Wearable Sensors: Fundamentals. Academic Press, Implementation and Applications (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  60. SIG, B.: Bluetooth technology website. https://www.bluetooth.com

  61. Starner, T.: The challenges of wearable computing: Part 1. IEEE Micro 21(4), 44–52 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Starner, T.: How wearables worked their way into the mainstream. IEEE Pervasive Comput. 13(4), 10–15 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Statista: Wearable device shipments worldwide from 2015 to 2021 (in million units). https://www.statista.com/statistics/610478/wearable-device-shipments-worldwide/

  64. Tamura, T., Maeda, Y., Sekine, M., Yoshida, M.: Wearable photoplethysmographic sensors—past and present. Electronics 3(2), 282–302 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Tizen: Tizen. https://www.tizen.org

  66. Vashist, S.K.: Non-invasive glucose monitoring technology in diabetes management: a review. Anal. Chim. Acta 750, 16–27 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Wang, S., Bie, R., Zhao, F., Zhang, N., Cheng, X., Choi, H.A.: Security in wearable communications. IEEE Netw. 30(5), 61–67 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  68. Whiting, D., Housley, R., Ferguson, N.: Counter with cbc-mac (ccm). In: RFC 3610. IETF (2003). http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3610.txt

  69. Zhang, M., Raghunathan, A., Jha, N.K.: Trustworthiness of medical devices and body area networks. Proc. IEEE 102(8), 1174–1188 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  70. Zhou, W., Piramuthu, S.: Security/privacy of wearable fitness tracking iot devices. In: 9th Iberian Conference on Infomation Systems and Technologies (CISTI) (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  71. Zieniewicz, M.J., Johnson, D.C., Wong, D.C., Flatt, J.D.: The evolution of army wearable computers. IEEE Pervasive Comput. 1(4), 30–40 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas M. Chen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Blasco, J., Chen, T.M., Kupwade Patil, H., Wolff, D. (2019). Wearables Security and Privacy. In: Ammari, H. (eds) Mission-Oriented Sensor Networks and Systems: Art and Science. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 164. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92384-0_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92384-0_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-92383-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-92384-0

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics