Security and Privacy Threats for Bluetooth Low Energy in IoT and Wearable Devices: A Comprehensive Survey

Abstract

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has become the de facto communication protocol for the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart wearable devices for its ultra-low energy consumption, ease of development, good enough network coverage, and data transfer speed. Due to the simplified design of this protocol, there have been lots of security and privacy vulnerabilities. As billions of health care, personal fitness wearable, smart lock, industrial automation devices adopt this technology for communication, its vulnerabilities should be dealt with high priority. Some segregated works on BLE were performed focusing on various vulnerabilities, such as the insecure implementation of encryption, device authentication, user privacy, etc. However, there has been no comprehensive survey on the security vulnerabilities of this protocol. In this survey paper, we present a comprehensive taxonomy for the security and privacy issues of BLE. We present possible attack scenarios for different types of vulnerabilities, classify them according to their severity, and list possible mitigation techniques. We also provide case studies regarding how different vulnerabilities can be exploited in real BLE devices.

A Review of Recent Advances in Vital Signals Monitoring of Sports and Health via Flexible Wearable Sensors

“…Prediction and diagnosis: Although relying on AI algorithms and multimodal sensors can diagnose and predict diseases, however, the diagnostic and predictive capabilities based on big data and AI algorithms are still underdeveloped. The key to this lies in the analysis of the data, which often still relies on medical professionals and is not useful for users [ 1 , 2 , 15 ]. In addition, there are still very few diseases for which diagnosis and prediction are currently possible, which is also true for sports.…”

“…Advances in new materials, advanced manufacturing, and flexible electronics technologies have improved comfort, real-time, and precision and expanded the range of applications. Notably, with the help of the internet of things [ 15 , 16 ], big data technology [ 17 , 18 ], and artificial intelligence algorithm [ 19 , 20 ], the vital signals monitored via flexible wearable sensors can be used not only by the user to decrease damage during exercise, rehabilitation, and daily life, but also medical staff. In addition, the use of flexible wearable sensors reduces markedly the frequency of visiting hospital visits, saves hospitalization expenses, and effectively improves the medical experience and the allocation of medical resources.…”

Internet of Things: Security and Solutions Survey

“…In these articles, different kinds of attacks were discussed. Article [ 29 ] showed the security flaws in Bluetooth and possible attacks on IoT using vulnerabilities of Bluetooth. Challenges of IoT are presented by others and a few of them are [ 30 , 31 , 32 ], etc.…”

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