IoT device disposal

Disposing of IoT devices (by discarding or selling them) may give other people easy access to personal and sensitive information.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre provides useful information for securing and disposing of an IoT device in the correct way.

Read this ISACA article that highlights the significance of assuring security in the Secure SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) for IoT devices: Subramanian, S 2017, Security Assurance in the SDLC for the Internet of Things, ISACA Journal, 1 May 2017.

The article briefly describes the IoT software components that facilitate the functioning of devices to collect data as sensors, and devices from their operating environment, provide connectivity, and enable user interaction using interfaces.

This article also explains how security assurance of IoT devices can be achieved by securing the SDLC process in practice. The process is known as Secure SDLC or S-SDLC. It describes how this is done in critical stages (or phases) of the SDLC process. These stages are a follows:

• Inception and Requirements: This stage involves defining the project scope, goals, and objectives. The team also performs a risk analysis to identify potential security threats.
• Design: This involves creating a detailed design of the software, including its architecture, functionality, and security controls.
• Development: This stage involves coding and building the software based on the design specifications. Unit testing is also performed to identify and fix any security issues.
• Testing: In this stage, functional testing, integration testing, and security testing is undertaken to identify and fix any vulnerabilities in the software.
• Deployment: In this stage, the tested software is deployed and goes live to users.
• Operation: Once the software is deployed, there is ongoing monitoring, maintenance, and updating of the software to ensure its continued security and functionality.

Now it’s your turn

Think about a device that you may need to dispose of soon. Share the type of device and what you will do to ensure that it is disposed of securely.