Watch out: If you've got a smart watch, hackers could get your data

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uoic-woi091015.php

Public Release: 10-Sep-2015
Watch out: If you've got a smart watch, hackers could get your data
University of Illinois College of Engineering

They're the latest rage in jewelry and gadgetry, but like all computer devices, smart watches are vulnerable to hackers, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Using a homegrown app on a Samsung Gear Live smart watch, the researchers were able to guess what a user was typing through data "leaks" produced by the motion sensors on smart watches. The project, called Motion Leaks through Smartwatch Sensors, or MoLe, has privacy implications, as an app that is camouflaged as a pedometer, for example, could gather data from emails, search queries and other confidential documents.

The work, funded by the National Science Foundation, is being presented this week at the MobiCom 2015 conference in Paris.

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