If you are trying to be
responsible towards the planet, also be responsible to yourself and take these
steps so that the device doesn’t end up costing you more than you’ve saved?
by Amer Oweida
Another way to reduce waste and save your hard-earned
money is by buying second hand electronic devices, notably computers and
smartphones – an option that’s especially worth discussing since today is Earth
Day.
However, purchasing a second hand device bears a
certain risk since you don’t really know what the device has been through and
how it has been used over its months or years of service. But the risks can be
mitigated; read on.
Buying the
device
When you’re choosing to buy a used device, you have
a variety of sources to choose from. The first and probably the best choice is
buying a refurbished device from an authorized seller. This basically means
that the device has been cleaned and checked by the seller, both from the
hardware and software sides. In some cases, you might even get a warranty on
the device, which saves you from a headache if it starts failing shortly after
purchase.
Alternatively, the other choice is resorting to
buying from advertising websites and online marketplaces. In this case, you
probably won’t have a chance to inspect the device personally before you order
it. If you opt for this scenario, you should definitely use a reputable
marketplace that has security measures to deal with scammers. Research the
seller, look at their reviews and ask them questions about the device. When
you’ve made up your mind, you should use a payment service that has purchase
protection just to be safe.
What to do if
I bought a second hand computer?
If you didn’t buy refurbished, then purchasing the
computer or laptop is just half of the battle. Now you have to check if
everything is in running order. You basically purchased a cat in a bag and you
shouldn’t just rush into using the computer. If you turn it on it already has a
running operating system, you don’t rush headlong into downloading your favourite
programs or go about checking your social media. First, check that there aren’t
any remnants of the previous
owner’s data on the hard drive. Then try
downloading and installing a reputable endpoint security product to scan the
computer.
“Why?” you may ask. Well, you have no other
reasonable way of knowing whether the seller installed any malicious code on the
computer in an effort to defraud you. The computer may have a key logger
installed to gain access to the credentials of all your accounts or perhaps
some other form of malware that can steal your data and transfer it to a remote
server. Alternatively, any of the previously mentioned things can be present
due to the owner failing to take the right precautions.
A green option – compared to replacing the hard
drive in the computer with a new one – would involve wiping the drive. Hard
drive manufacturers offer utilities that allow you to wipe your drive with
varying degrees of security ranging from a single overwrite to multiple passes
with random data and even specific security protocols. Once you’ve chosen and
done one or the other, you should proceed and do a clean install of the OS of
your choice. Adding an endpoint security solution to your computer for added
protection will be more than a nice final touch, and you should be ready to go.
What to do if
I bought a second hand smartphone?
As with the case of computers, the same logic
applies for smartphones: if you haven’t bought it refurbished with a warranty,
you have to get your hands dirty. After the smartphone checks out and has no
signs of hardware damage, it’s time to see how the software is doing. If you
start it up and it readily goes through the booting process and doesn’t walk
you through a setup process, you should immediately be suspicious. The former
owner may have been lazy and not gone through the wiping process properly or
alternatively or the device may contain
some form of malware.
To wipe the phone securely, start by checking
whether all of the services have been signed out; once you’ve done that, you
should remove all the accounts associated with the phone. The next step is to
encrypt the phone’s data. Since you don’t know what kind of data has been
stored on the phone, it’s probably safer that way. You’ve finally made it to the
factory reset step. The name of the option may vary from manufacturer to
manufacturer but in the end, it should always do the same thing: reset the
smartphone to factory settings. That means that everything is deleted or wiped,
and it should revert to the state it was in when it came out of the box.
Hopefully these tips will help you on your quest to
buy a second hand device and we applaud you for being responsible to our
planet. After all, it is the only one we have.