If you worry about where your data is today, do you have a plan for when you wear your data to and from work?
The dangers of wearable devices are not imminent, and many technologies (e.g., Google Glass) are still in beta, according to a January Forrester Research Inc. report called “The Enterprise Wearable Journey,” by J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst focusing on infrastructure and operations professionals at Forrester. The wearable industry will blossom over the next decade, the report says.
However, law firms can start taking steps now to avoid leaking client data through wearable devices, according to industry analysts.
“We should start today familiarizing ourselves with what is different about the wearables and the [Internet of Things] from traditional security—forearmed is forewarned,” said Earl Perkins, research vice president at Gartner Inc., in an LTN interview. “It’s a new, complex world.”
Stamford, Conn.-based research and advisory firm Gartner anticipates wearable electronic revenue worldwide will more than triple in the years leading up to 2016, from $1.6 billion to $5 billion.
Although there has not been a notable case to date where a hacker used wearables as an entry point to infiltrate an internal network, according to Gartner’s Perkins, there is a possibility such an incident could occur.
Most data collected from wearable technology today is not encrypted and transmitted with “minimal protection,” Perkins said.
To avoid an information hazard, firms using wearable devices should ensure data are encrypted, says Sharon Nelson, president of Sensei Enterprises Inc., an IT, digital forensics and information security firm located in Fairfax, Va.
Most wearable devices use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, Nelson said. Wi-Fi must be encrypted with WEP2 (Wired Equivalent Privacy), and Bluetooth should be disabled on law firm devices when they are not in use, she says. Bluesnarfing, or stealing information though a Bluetooth connection, will likely become more common as wearable devices increase in popularity, according to Nelson.
“We have already heard anecdotally that some law firms are banning Google Glass,” Nelson said.
