Smartwatches Are Being Used To Distribute Malware (defensenews.com) 17
"Smartwatches are being sent to random military members loaded with malware, much like malware distribution via USB drives in the past," writes longtime Slashdot reader frdmfghtr. "Recipients are advised not to turn them on and report the incident to their local security office." Defense News reports: The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, in an announcement last week warned the watches may contain malware, potentially granting whoever sent the peripherals "access to saved data to include banking information, contacts, and account information such as usernames and passwords."
A more innocuous tactic may also be to blame: so-called brushing, used in e-commerce to boost a seller's ratings through fake orders and reviews. The CID, an independent federal law enforcement agency consisting of thousands of personnel, did not say exactly how many smartwatches were so far distributed.
A more innocuous tactic may also be to blame: so-called brushing, used in e-commerce to boost a seller's ratings through fake orders and reviews. The CID, an independent federal law enforcement agency consisting of thousands of personnel, did not say exactly how many smartwatches were so far distributed.
Smartwatch - Dumbwatch (Score:3)
the smart thing to do is to not have a watch of any kind.
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My watch is self winding. No battery. No recharging.
But it can't run Crysis.
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I thought so too at one stage. Got some self-winding diving watch from a well-known Japanese brand (not the most expensive though). It needed regular servicing with pressure testing afterwards - not too cheap in maintenance after all. In the end some mechanism wore out and no replacement part was available on the market any more and it became a pain to use reliably.
These days I have one of these smartwatch th
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I have a Casio with an HR monitor, step counter and BT for notifications. It charges via solar or USB adapter. I have never had to place it on the USB adapter charger even with the HR system turned to the "always on" setting because the solar charging keeps it in the 90th percentile. It does also have GPS, but I don't really use that feature.
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"It does also have GPS, but I don't really use that feature."
That's okay, the hacker who pwned it is finding it very useful.
Re: Smartwatch - Dumbwatch (Score:2)
My smart watch never needs to be set, not does it need to be reset during DST changes. I can set alarms very easily on it, too. My wife makes good use of our calendar so it also shows me when we have upcoming doc appts etc.
To each their own, ten years from now i may be back on my Timex.
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And use military's approved watches.
to get behind the firewall? (Score:2)
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How does this work? It sounds like the device expects a wifi connection to switch on and be useful. At that point it should be game over for the LAN + router. More details would be good.
The Apple Watch requires the iPhone to have Bluetooth on and on Wifi, but not the watch on setup; so it uses the iPhone's connection initially. Since they didn't mention the brand, I doubt they were getting free Apple Watches; if they were I'd lean toward espionage because no seller Is going to send out a bunch of expensive watches to game the ratings. I would lean towards a ratings scam with watches that happen to have malware on them, I would guess if you wanted to target a group emails or texts would b
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I ordered books from Amazon, got a pair of cheap Chinese smartwatches, never opened the boxes, they sit in a drawer waiting for the end of the world.
Maybe I'll gift them to people I don't like.
After I contacted Amazon, they said "keep them, we will send you the books again". They did not sound surprised at all.
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I ordered books from Amazon, got a pair of cheap Chinese smartwatches, never opened the boxes, they sit in a drawer waiting for the end of the world. Maybe I'll gift them to people I don't like.
After I contacted Amazon, they said "keep them, we will send you the books again". They did not sound surprised at all.
A while back I got some strange packages from Amazon - a hat, a coffee mug and a few other random items from a seller I never ordered from. I contacted Amazon and they also said keep them, and closed teh sellers account. My guess it was a ratings scam.
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I think that is what it was. I got sheets of teflon (which were interesting and fun to play with) and some plumbing hardware.
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I canâ(TM)t imagine that soldiers are authorized to receive gifts like that put our nations security at risk. My watch has full access to my internal internet, even without the phone.
I get it. I have been tricked. But I also never pledged an oath to protect the US.
Smart Malware (Score:2)
SPECIAL DEAL! (Score:2)
90% off all smart watches to holders of military ranks above Major.
Holders of diplomatic credentials are eligible too!