A Twitter post highlighting how US Vice President, Kamala Harris, prefers using wired headsets instead of wireless ones that use Bluetooth as a cybersecurity risk.
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This was followed by a report by Politico that mocked Harris¡¯s move, terming her ¡®Bluetooth-phobic¡¯. Yes, the rise of Bluetooth earphones over the last few years has no doubt sent wireless headphones going through the roof, and for good reason -- they're just so convenient to use and no more wire tangles to worry about.?
But that doesn't mean they're the most secure. In fact, most buyers don't even factor in the cybersecurity risk of Bluetooth technology.??
With this context, US Vice President Kamala Harriss' fear and caution towards using Bluetooth accessories is totally justified. In fact, every world leader or a person of influence must be wary of using Bluetooth devices, especially headsets.
Kamala Harris, unlike a common citizen, is actually the vice president of one of the most powerful nations of the world. By hierarchy, she is the second most powerful individual in the US government after President Joe Biden, making her a high-profile target.?
And something similar was also agreed upon by a security researcher (highlighted by The Verge) on Twitter by the name of @SwiftOnSecurity, where he revealed that Bluetooth is turned on exposes the device for a variety of attacks.?
According to the popular cybersecurity database CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), as of now, there exist 459 current and previous Bluetooth vulnerabilities.?
Some like CVE-2021-34537 is a vulnerability that allows an elevation of privilege on a Windows system. On the other hand, CVE-2021-25472 vulnerability allows improper access control in BluetoothSettingsProvider prior to SMR Oct-2021 Release 1 that allows untrusted apps to overwrite some Bluetooth information.?
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Some attacks crash devices of the victims via DoS or Denial of Service attacks where a device is constantly battered with connection requests, forcing the processor to overload and stop responding.?
Even though Bluetooth vulnerabilities exist only in the range of a Bluetooth device, it has the potential of being equally harmful, and for a high-profile individual, any kind of security breach can cause catastrophes of great magnitude.
Would you once again make a switch to wired headsets??Tell us in the comments below and keep reading?Indiatimes.com?for the latest?science and technology?news.