EN
August 3, 2021
Do you work out? Before COVID-19 struck, over 1 in 5 Americans belonged to at least one health club or studio in the US in 2019. As gyms and fitness centers were forced to shut down due to the pandemic, more people have started to do exercise at home. You may want to buy exercise equipment or sign up for online physical training memberships, but please also beware of your cybersecurity fitness. Continue reading to learn cybersecurity risks associated with fitness and how to protect yourself when you work out at home:
For example, it is reported that Peloton, a famous exercise equipment company in the USA, had cybersecurity issues with their fitness products in June 2021.
Vulnerabilities were found in some Peloton bikes, enabling hackers to gain access to the devices (Peloton Bike+ or a Peloton Tread) and take control over them. Hackers could then install and run malicious apps in your Peloton bike (disguised as normal ones like Netflix or Spotify), opening backdoor access and spying on you remotely without your knowledge.
Hackers could steal all your sensitive credentials and use them for identity theft. Or, your
camera and microphone could be compromised; your workout could be watched or even recorded unknowingly.
Besides malicious attacks, data breaches also happen every now and then in health and fitness industry. Here are some examples:
Total Fitness, a UK health club, has confirmed a data breach in February 2021, exposing members’ banking information including account numbers. Total Fitness stressed that credit card information was not accessed, but there could still be cybersecurity risks – with the personal information stolen, hackers can commit identity theft.
Back in September 2020, Town Sports International, a US fitness chain, suffered a data breach, with over 600,000 people’s personal information leaked.
As BleepingComputer reported, breached information included users’ names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, last four digits of credit cards, credit card expiration dates, and their billing history.
Cybercriminal could send users text messages or emails with phishing links and make them seem more convincing with these sensitive credentials, prompting users to click on the link and stealing further personal information.
1. After you pin the Trend Micro Check browser extension, it will block dangerous sites for you automatically:
2. Trend Micro Check on WhatsApp:
Send a link or a screenshot of suspicious text messages to Trend Micro Check on WhatsApp for immediate scam detection:
Use Trend Micro ID Security to find out if your information was leaked in a data breach. Trend Micro ID Securitycan monitor your identifying data and alert you if any of them has been compromised.
Trend Micro ID Security includes:
Click the button below to give it a try:
