Apple Watches Booted From UK Cabinet

The U.K.’s Cabinet ministers will no longer be allowed to wear Apple Watches during meetings.

Prime Minister Theresa May has prohibited the smartwatch from being worn for fear of the devices being hacked by Russian spies. Ministers are also not allowed to bring their mobile devices into meetings due to similar security concerns.

“The Russians are trying to hack everything,” a source told The Telegraph.

Smartwatches may be a prime target for hackers.

A recent research study out of Binghamton University revealed wearable technology may put the user at risk of getting their ATM PIN hacked.

“The proliferation of wearable devices, e.g., smartwatches and activity trackers, with embedded sensors has already shown its great potential on monitoring and inferring human daily activities,” said the researchers. “This paper reveals a serious security breach of wearable devices in the context of divulging secret information (i.e., key entries) while people accessing key-based security systems.”

In order for hackers to steal an ATM PIN from a wearable device, they have to download the sensor data from the devices, which the researchers found is easy to do by using a wireless sniffer that captures data being sent between the wearable device and the smartphone it connects with via Bluetooth. Another option for hackers is installing malware on the phone or wearable device and having it sent to them.

Once the bad guys have the data, they are able to analyze the movement of the person’s hands as they use a wearable device and the speed at which they do it. And whether the hacker uses sniffer technology or malware, wearable device users could get their ATM PIN hacked and their bank account wiped out before they know it.