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Hey, turn Bluetooth off when you’re not using it

Bluetooth-Art

 

 

You intuitively know why you should bolt your doors when you leave the house, and add some sort of authentication for your smartphone. But there are lots of digital entrances that you leave open all the time, like Wi-Fi and your cell connection. It’s a calculated risk, and the benefits generally make it worthwhile. That calculus changes with Bluetooth. Whenever you don’t absolutely need it, you should go ahead and turn it off.

 

“For attackers it’s Candyland,” says David Dufour, the vice president of engineering and cybersecurity at the security firm Webroot. “You sit with a computer with a Bluteooth-enabled radio—just scanning for devices saying, ‘Hey, is anybody out there?’ Then you start prodding those devices to look for things like the operating system and the Bluetooth version. It’s a hop, skip, and a jump to start doing bad stuff.”

 

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