Hackers can use smart watch motion sensors to steal your ATM pin

As you constantly add the latest gadgets to your daily life be it fitness trackers, smart watches, timed networked heating, networked toasters etc.. do you ever stop to think that with such convince also comes risk? Well I can safely tell you that the more connected you become the wider you make the threat surface that is your personal security. A recent study from Binghamton University cites that it may be possible for hackers to obtain your ATM password from your smart watch or fitness tracker.

The risk lies in the motion sensors used by these wearable devices. The sensors also collect information about your hand movements among other data, making it possible for "attackers to reproduce the trajectories" of your hand and "recover secret key entries." 
And just in case you are doubtful the paper, titled "Friend or Foe?: Your Wearable Devices Reveal Your Personal PIN," computer scientists from the Stevens Institute of Technology and Binghamton University used a computer algorithm that can guess your password and PIN with about 80% success rate on the first attempt, and over 90% of the time with 3 tries.

Now I'm not sure about you but an 80-90% success rate within 3 tries seems pretty dam high to me. The paper also goes on to state that their "Backward PIN-Sequence Inference" algorithm can be used to capture anything a person type on any keyboard – from automatic teller machine or ATM keypads to mobile keypads – through infected smartwatches, even if the person makes the slight hand movements while entering PINs. The paper also states that at this time there is no way to avoid such an attack but have made the suggestion that manufacturers add random white noise to there devices in order to disorient patterns that can capture sensitive information.