Smartwatches are slowing taking over, just look at the wrists of your colleagues next time you’re at work. It is estimated that in 2018, 71 million smartwatches will be sold. This growth of smart wearables is powered by smartwatches, not fitness trackers. With the amount of people jumping on the smartwatch train, hackers may be a part of those too. Understanding the security features and issues must be on your mind when you purchase a smartwatch. So, we ask ourselves, how secure are smartwatches? We will answer this with three A’s.

Authorization

Your smartwatch connects to your smartphone. If you are like many people, you use your smartphone for a variety of tasks, some as important as checking your email and bank account. You may have a password on your phone but what about your smartwatch? A study showed that the most common security issue was that many users’ smartwatches lacked two factor authentication. Not to mention the handful of other issues related to the lack of encryptions on the smartwatch.

Although these facts may be alarming, being smart about how you use your smartwatch can prevent these threats. Never store passwords or sensitive information on your smartwatch. Always update to the latest software version and buy the newest generation smartwatch.

Antivirus

Much like a computer, when you download an app or file from the internet there are always risks to downloading a virus. With your smartwatch connected to your phone, there is always potential for those who want to hack your watch. So, should you have an antivirus installed on your smartwatch? There isn’t an absolute yes or no answer to this question. More likely than not, it is not necessary to download an antivirus onto your smartwatch. As long as you are smart about how you are using your smartwatch you don’t need to download any antivirus software.

Actions

When it comes down to all technology security, your actions have the largest effect on whether your devices are safe. Understanding what malware is and how you could potentially be targeted is a great first step to protecting your smart devices. Staying up to date on all updates that come to your smartwatch is another great step to protect against security issues. Often times, these software updates fix bugs and add protections against the latest hacking trends.

Stay up to date with all things security by checking out our blog, we offer insights to cybersecurity, risk and compliance, business continuity and disaster recovery.