Bluetooth group downplays security risks

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has dismissed the security fears surrounding the technology, and said that any flaws in it are limited to a small number of mobile phones. Bluetooth is primarily a short-range wireless technology which operates in the same 2.4GHz frequency band as wireless Lans. It is used as cordless replacement to connect a wide range of devices, such as mobile phones, to each other in a process known as "pairing" and can also serve as the link between a phone or handheld computer and Bluetooth wireless printers.

Mike McCamon, marketing director of the Bluetooth SIG, said that Bluetooth device shipments have now hit one million a week and that any security problems with the wireless technology security problems are limited to a handful of phones manufactured by Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

Those phones, which include Sony Ericsson R520m and T68i phones and Nokia's 6310, 6310i, 8910 and 8910i phones, are susceptible to a hacking technique known as "bluesnarfing", according to Nick Hunn, a Bluetooth security expert and sales managing director at TDK Systems Europe.

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