Security and Privacy Issues of Handheld and Wearable Wireless Devices

This report discusses the security and privacy challenges associated with handheld and wearable wireless devices. It explores the potential risks and offers solutions to address them. Find study material on Desklib.

Running head: WIRELESS SECURITY AND PRIVACY
SECURITY AND PRIVACY ISSUES OF HANDHELD AND WEARABLE
WIRELESS DEVICES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
About Wireless security and privacy in HWW..........................................................................2
Security challenges.....................................................................................................................3
System security..........................................................................................................................5
Privacy issues.............................................................................................................................5
Solution......................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The report aims at describing the major security and privacy concerns that are faced
with wireless devices. This becomes important to determine the variety of appliance that
becomes important for daily lives. This basically includes wearable heart rate monitor, PDA,
cell phone with GPS and outfitted multiple sensors. Among all this application few has the
capability to interact with each other as this is simple and easy to operate. The report will
describe all the important security and privacy concern that arises with the wearable wireless
devices. Wearable devices offers a better benefit only if they has the ability interact directly
with other appliances. In order to achieve the goal it becomes important to ensure that proper
transparent and frequent communication is processed. However there is a high chance of
serious breach within this devices as these becomes easy to physically locate the actions of
user carrying wireless devices. The report will focus on the HWW network models, the
security challenges, privacy issues and possible solution for overcoming this concerns. It is
important to determine the major privacy concerns that comes along with the use of wireless
devices (Zhou and Jun 2015). The report has described the wireless security and privacy
concern. The chosen concept for wireless security and privacy is the handheld and wearable
devices. The report has included the major security challenges associated with the wireless
technology. Apart from this the privacy concern related to wireless security are also going to
be described in the report.
About Wireless security and privacy in HWW
Wireless security aims at providing a better way of preventing the device from
unapproved access or that damages to computers or data using wireless networks. It is
important to maintain the wireless security properly so that it can enhance the way it takes
place. There are basically 3 types of wireless networks, this includes LAN, WAN and PAN.
Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWAN), are referred to the use of mobile phone signals and
are classically maintained and provided by specific mobile phone (cellular) service providers.
The six different types of wearable wireless technologies are near the field of communication,
Bluetooth low energy, ANT, Bluetooth classic and Wi-Fi (Wang and Shengling 2016). The
different types of wireless security includes Wired Equivalent Privacy and Wi-Fi Protected
Access. The handheld and wearable wireless (HWW) gets a better implication in day to day
life due to their mobility requirements and small size. The major implementation and design

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constraints that are needed to be considered includes battery depletion, slow processors, small
amount of RAM and offers a limited communication range. The area that is covered by
wireless transmission is basically limited due to technical and energy considerations. Apart
from all this there are high chances of experiencing communication failure within the
wireless network. Thus it becomes important to have a proper analysis of technological and
non-technological factors so that it can be addressed properly and can ensure better
communication within the infrastructure (Sgora et al. 2016). The non-technological issue
describes the design for new regulations so that it can provide a better way of virtually global
environment. The capabilities of the handheld and wearable wireless devices has become the
main reason for having a better security and privacy protections to an exceptional scale. This
occurs as there is threat of exposing the personal security and privacy of an individual. There
are basically two types of HWW paradigm that are associated with security issues and
privacy concerns related to user. The two main models of HWW are Flat web presence and
Hierarchical web presence.
Flat web presence: this web presence needs an effective solution for describing the
main research problems. For example the implementation of HWW devices that can take
place at anytime and anywhere that requires an effective protocol and algorithm for providing
a wide spread access to all the important and useful HWW devices (Saltikoff and Elena
2016). HWW device needs to have a proper intelligent, context aware agent that are offered
along with the services. The feasibility of scenario needs to have a proper network
infrastructure that will provide a better extent way of internet.
Hierarchical web presence: this restricts the possibility of web presence for service
and reduces the difficulty and traffic load as compared to the flat web presence. This web
presence is mainly based on local interoperability between the HWW devices (Saleem and
Kashif 2016). Thus it can be stated that this approach will simplify the design of the network
infrastructure.
Security challenges faced with HWW
Wearable wireless device needs a proper satisfactory level of security for having a
proper deployment. However it becomes important to export the solution that are recognised
for wired environment in the field of wireless devices. But this becomes very difficult to
deliver a feasible approach because there are huge differences between the two models.
Moreover it becomes difficult to protect the device from denial of service attacks as there is

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no large routine tables that can be continued on these devices. Thus it becomes difficult to
protect the device from attacks that needs proper access from physical media. In addition to
this it becomes impossible to detect the physical eavesdropping in wireless communication
(Pandian and Poondi Srinivasan 2018). Apart from the difference between two models there
are three basic security requirements that includes confidentiality towards the information,
integrity ensures that unauthorized people cannot access the information and are prevented
from modifying the information and availability. Availability ensures that authorized entities
are allowed to access the service at effective time. However it is expected that the wired
paradigm has the ability to provide a proper confidentiality towards the data stored with the
use of access control techniques. This also includes the proper application of cryptography
and integrity so that it can provide a better way of message authentication code. The
mechanism that helps in describing the HWW paradigm while describing the potential
limitations regarding the use are as follows:
Cryptography: there are mainly two different types of cryptography, which are
symmetric and public key cryptography. The symmetric cryptography includes sharing of a
secret key between two devices. Thus in such cases there is a need to ensure how the key is
being generated and shared among the devices. Thus managing a huge number of secret key
will lead to the scalability issue. On the other handheld in public key cryptography there is no
need of sharing the secret key (Mukhopadhyay and Subhas Chandra 2015). After analysing
both the method it can be stated that primary key cryptography is the ideal way of ensuring
confidentiality. However the primary key cryptography is not feasible for HWW paradigm as
it have a poor processing power. Thus it is important to ensure that symmetric cryptography
is used in HWW paradigm.
Message authentication code: the idea behind MAC includes a proper sender that
aims at obtaining the digital fingerprinting for a particular message sent by the user using one
way has function. In case the fingerprint received from user matches with the one
recalculated by receiver than it can be stated that received message is not been modified at
the time of transmission. There are two standards used by digital fingerprinting these are
MD5 and SHA-1 (Liu and Hong 2018). However it is needed to keep in mind that
inappropriate custom solution for digital fingerprinting will lead to weak MAC address that
will be easy to forge.

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Access control: there are mainly two subtasks related to issues that are authentication
among the devices ad granting the revoke privilege. Second comes the way permission is
assigned and set towards the devices. However the hardware constraint becomes a major
issue towards the HWW environment. It becomes difficult to identify the dynamic nature of
HWW architecture and to store data with the use of access control data structure as HWW
device has a single storage system (Hassan and Sabo Miya 2017). Thus it becomes important
for HWW network to have a proper access control that will need proper distributed solutions
that will increase all the exposure towards the attacks. However it is possible to address the
problems by addressing the security concerns in handheld and wearable wireless networks.
System security
The basic security requirements associated with the HWW devices is regarding the
safety of system. Several researches has showed a proper focus on the system security. There
are several threats regarding to system security and includes routing. In such situation the
communication takes place between the handheld and wearable wireless devices through the
help of multihop. Thus the elements that facilitates the communication between two or more
devices can become a threat towards communication security. In addition to this with the
increase in path between the communications the chances of attack increases as there are
several person between the middle. Apart from this there are application flaws that arises
while running a program on HWW device that has the chances of being hacked by the wired
paradigm (Choukiker et al. 2014). Hacking is performed by exploiting a flaw within the
implementation phase or at the time of designing the application. As the application used for
developing the handheld and wearable wireless devices includes tight hardware constraints it
leads to an inherent weaker application as compared to wired paradigm. However it becomes
difficult to overcome the structural weakness. In order to monitor the correct behaviour of
application it becomes important to implement intrusion detection system. however in order
to implement proper IDS on HWW device it is important to have an extra storage and extra
computing power that acts as more constrained resources.
Privacy issues
Privacy of a device is a major concern as it becomes important to maintain a proper
confidentiality among the handheld and wearable wireless devices. Privacy basically aims at
protecting the information of an individual from unwanted people without their concern.

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However the major benefits are obtained with the handheld and wearable wireless devices
when they are connected to other appliances. In the interaction process of handheld and
wearable wireless devices there is a continuous flow of information that is performed
transparent. This has the ability to constitute a major breach in privacy that is being located
within the device. This describes how the privacy is at risk for both flat web presence model
and hierarchical model. The flat web presence includes proper global connectivity handheld
and wearable wireless devices. The main objective of the model is to develop each object in
the real world Web present. Moreover flat web presence has the ability to provide global
connectivity towards the handheld and wearable wireless devices. There is a high chance that
flat web present threatens the privacy by generating virtual paths between the handheld and
wearable wireless devices. For example the interaction that takes place between the
embedded main control of a car and user PDA and not the user’s car.
Handheld and wearable wireless devices will have the ability to exchange the
information. This will include receiving the license plate number of the car to be get
associated with PDA and will be stored in this device. Thus it will lead to privacy violation
that will mainly threat the location of the car. This has the ability to track the activity of the
car on a long run. This will become a threat towards the user life and the confidential data
associated with them. Thus the main issue that arises is related to the communication range
offered by handheld and wearable wireless devices. On the other handheld, hierarchical web
presence offers local connectivity towards the devices. Each device present within the local
connectivity area creates a vision for other devices which are in direct communication with
the devices. This local vision are further communication to the other handheld and wearable
wireless devices for providing a better efficient support towards the mobility and offers a
better flexibility. Once the handheld and wearable wireless devices enters the local zone all
the information regarding local vision gets loaded within the devices. This has the capability
to generate a threat towards the privacy. However it can be ensured that local connectivity
extension gets limited with exporting the privacy sensitive information.
Solution
The use of handheld and wearable wireless devices offers a great experience towards
the customer. However the major concern related to privacy and security needs to be
maintained properly so that it can offer better advantages. The two possible solutions that can
be identified for preserving the personal privacy of user includes using the handheld and

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wearable wireless paradigm based on logical border mechanism and secondly developing
handheld and wearable wireless paradigm based on anonymous user identity. This concept
will help in redesigning the current network infrastructure properly (Billinghurst, Mark and
Thad Starner 2017). Basically a logical border is used with the aim of limiting the
propagation of Web presence. This will include an efficient way of implementing the logical
borders. Moreover it is important to ensure that web presence advertising is allowed only to
the limit offered towards the user. This will ensure that proper requirements of the users are
fulfilled for the handheld and wearable wireless devices that will offer a simple configuration
with high usability. Logical border needs to have a better implementation so that it can
provide better support towards the user system profile. This profiles are further embedded
with logical borders that has the ability to refine the independent context of agents. This
approach further describes the open issues that has the ability to include management of
mobile personal profile. This will enhance the security of autonomous agents. However there
are some privacy related to the user privacy that can rise even when someone tries turn off
the handheld and wearable wireless devices they can leak information that ill further lead to
privacy issues (Chen and Lien‐Wu 2017). The major drawback is that it becomes difficult to
trace the user activity. Thus with the help of logical border approach major threats will be
analysed effectively.
The main functionality of handheld and wearable wireless paradigm is to provide
proper service discovery, advertising that needs to be prepared based on the anonymous UID
that are not connected with the real user. However using an UID doesn’t means that the user
would never be identified. The implementation of anonymous IDs will require redesigning
the algorithm and protocols for better network infrastructure. In addition to this handheld and
wearable wireless device will expose the anonymous attackers and will guarantee a higher
level of security towards the user privacy.
Conclusion
The report is developed on the security and privacy concerns related to handheld and
wearable wireless devices. Thus from the above report it can be stated that emergence of
networks of handheld and wearable wireless devices and models will provide a better
integrate deployment. The security concern has the ability to provide partial benefit towards
the model and will integrate the deployment. Apart from this the report has also described the
few issues of handheld and wearable wireless environment. Moreover it is important to have

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a better way of resolving the complex issues so that it can provide better benefits. Apart from
this the report has also included the privacy, safety and solution towards the wireless devices.
Thus it is important to provide an alternative solution that will ensure proper preservation of
the privacy. This solution will also need a redesigning part for developing the current
network infrastructure. The chief functionality related to handheld and wearable wireless
paradigm is that it provides proper service towards the customers. This will also offer better
advertising based on the anonymous UID that are not connected with the real user. In
addition to this it will also provide a convenient trade-offs among the privacy and security
issues. Thus it can be stated that proper wireless security and privacy needs to be
implemented in order to maintain a better device.

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References
Billinghurst, Mark, and Thad Starner. "Wearable devices: new ways to manage
information." Computer 32.1 (2017): 57-64.
Chen, Lien‐Wu, et al. "Intelligent file transfer for smart handheld devices based on mobile
cloud computing." International Journal of Communication Systems 30.1 (2017): e2947.
Choukiker, Yogesh Kumar, Satish K. Sharma, and Santanu K. Behera. "Hybrid fractal shape
planar monopole antenna covering multiband wireless communications with MIMO
implementation for handheld mobile devices." IEEE Transactions on Antennas and
Propagation 62.3 (2014): 1483-1488.
Hassan, Sabo Miya, et al. "Application of wireless technology for control: A WirelessHART
perspective." Procedia Computer Science 105 (2017): 240-247.
Liu, Hong, et al. "Selective disclosure and yoking-proof based privacy-preserving
authentication scheme for cloud assisted wearable devices." Future Generation Computer
Systems 78 (2018): 976-986.
Mukhopadhyay, Subhas Chandra. "Wearable sensors for human activity monitoring: A
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Pandian, Poondi Srinivasan, et al. "Wireless sensor network for wearable physiological
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Pyattaev, Alexander, et al. "Communication challenges in high-density deployments of
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Saleem, Kashif, et al. "Design and deployment challenges in immersive and wearable
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Saltikoff, Elena, et al. "The threat to weather radars by wireless technology." Bulletin of the
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Sgora, Aggeliki, Dimitrios D. Vergados, and Periklis Chatzimisios. "A survey on security and
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(2016): 1877-1889.

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Wang, Shengling, et al. "Security in wearable communications." IEEE Network 30.5 (2016):
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