In case you didn’t know it, according to the latest report issued by the International Data Corporation, sales of smartwatches have increased by 200% during the first quarter of this year, resulting in over 11 million units sold.

Not only do these gadgets attract consumers, but they are also getting the attention of cybercriminals. We’ve already warned you on a few occasions of the vulnerabilities of smartwatches, but a group of investigators from the University of Illinois have just uncovered a new security risk posed by these devices. They have shown that it is possible to use them to detect the information that someone enters into a computer.

Microsoft is gearing up to launch a wearable device within the next few weeks. The gadget is a smart watch that will passively track a wearer’s heart rate and work across different mobile platforms. It will also boast a battery life of more than two days of regular use, sources close to the project say.

That could put it ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smart watch and Moto 360 which both need to be charged around once a day. The wearable will hit stores soon after launch in a bid to capture the lucrative holiday season, a timeline Apple was reportedly targeting before it delayed its own Watch.