Canon just sent out a warning.
Wipe your old printers before selling/discarding them!
It seems that printer technicians can access the memory and go into settings to uncover old Wifi passwords.
Their advisory seems to suggest wiping the settings a couple of times before you dispose of the item.
Affected Products/Versions
Please check the affected inkjet printer models from here.
Mitigation/Remediation
When your printer may be in the hand of any third party, such as when repairing, lending or disposing the printer, take the following steps from the printer unit:
- Reset all settings (Reset settings ‐> Reset all)
- Enable the wireless LAN
- Reset all settings one more time.
That got us thinking. What else could carry a similar risk?
In these days of more smart devices at home and at work, there are more devices with WiFi than ever!
For example:
- TVs
- Burglar alarms and security cameras
- Soundbars
- Alexa or similar units.
- Robot vaccums or mowers
- Smart lights/blinds/smart home hubs
These are just a handful of items that you might expect to connect to with your phone,and that means some kind of data connection, most likely through your Wifi.
The printer warning from Canon will hold true for many of these items as well.