Buying refurbished devices is not uncommon. Online marketplaces, such as eBay, offer a platform for customers to purchase second-hand gadgets at a lower price than the original, but at a higher quality than a used device sold by a private individual. And with today’s supply chain issues and semiconductor bottlenecks, sometimes new equipment is not available, so buying refurbished is the only way for enterprises to expand their infrastructure. Naturally, refurbished devices come with risks, and there are cautionary measures one can (and should) take when buying second-hand gadgets. But what about deception? Say a customer didn’t know the gadget they purchased had been refurbished. What if they thought they were buying a brand new device?
When enterprises unknowingly buy refurbished products and devices, they lack an accurate understanding of their hardware infrastructure and have no control of their hardware asset risk level.
Actionable hardware asset risk management requires visibility at the hardware level, looking at a device’s physical layer data signals to accurately identify it and determine its level of trust.