Cybersecurity risks exposed in fitness trackers and children’s toys

Fitness devices and children's smart toys, as well as other connected devices, can be easily manipulated by domestic abusers seeking to access private information and control victims, finds a report by UCL researchers. As the use of fitness trackers during subsequent lockdowns has surged, experts are raising concerns about their safety and ability to reveal personal information about people's bodies, homes and their movements. Medical devices with similar capabilities are heavily regulated, but there is a grey zone between these and fitness devices which has resulted in a regulatory loophole. In the report, commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), experts from UCL Science, Technology, Engineering & Public Policy (STEaPP) analyse the issues around fitness devices and set out the necessary steps to secure them for consumers. Lead author Dr Saheli Datta Burton (UCL STEaPP) explained: "We as consumers need to be more demanding about the safety and security of fitness devices that are increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives. It's important we know who else can read our information, how it's being processed, whether the readings can be changed to cause harm and what manufacturers and regulators are doing to protect us. "It's also important that we understand what the margin of error is when fitness trackers read our data, for example when they monitor our heartbeat.