Bluetooth Low Energy: The IoT battle

Table Of Contents

• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a wireless protocol designed to consume very little power. BLE networking is somewhat different to other known protocols built on top of TCP/IP. Today, BLE is implemented in many devices that require networking capabilities but are very constrained in energy consumption.
• The most well-known example of BLE-enabled devices are fitness trackers. These use their BLE interface to send fitness activity-related data to a BLE-enabled smartphone. However, BLE is also being implemented in more sensitive devices such as baby monitors, smartlocks, biometric authentication systems and health management devices.
• It is therefore necessary to understand the security implications and risks of using BLE as a means to communicate with other devices.
• This article provides a set of security guidelines, tools and considerations for anyone within an organisation who is considering acquiring or implementing BLE-enabled devices. Our guidelines cover a wide range of responsibilities, from the product manager to the most security-related, the penetration tester.