Pierluigi Paganini October 10, 2016

The UK Government has decided to ban Apple Watches ban from the Cabinet over foreign eavesdropper fears, in 2013 occurred with the iPad.

The political fears cyber espionage, the recent string of cyber attacks against the US Presidential election and the constant pressure of Chinese hackers urge a major awareness on the cyber threats. In 2013, cabinet ministers were banned from bringing smartphones and tablets to meetings, the UK Government decided to ban iPads from the Cabinet over foreign eavesdropper fears.

The news was reported by the Mail on Sunday, after the Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude made a presentation using his iPads the Downing Street security staff has dismissed the mobile device to prevent eavesdropping of ongoing discussions.

Now the Tory government’s cabinet ministers have banned the Apple watches from internal meeting in case they are compromised by foreign cyber spies. The UK Government believes that Russians hackers could exploit such category of devices to gather sensitive information.

“Ministers have been barred from wearing Apple Watches during Cabinet meetings amid concerns that they could be hacked by Russian spies, The Telegraph has learned.” reported the Telegraph.

“Mobile phones have already been barred from the Cabinet because of similar concerns.One source said: “The Russians are trying to hack everything.”

It seems that Apple Watches are very popular gadgets among cabinet ministers when David Cameron was the prime minister many politicians. Things have changed under the government of the Prime Minister Theresa May who banned the devices amid fears that foreign hackers could listen in to government business.

The measure was adopted to avoid foreign security services infecting wearable devices mobile that could be used to spy on the ministers.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Apple Watches, IoT)