In 2008, Sharp commissioned a survey on copier security that found 60 percent of Americans "don't know" that copiers store images on a hard drive. Sharp tried to warn consumers about the simple act of copying. (2010 Aug 26. Digital Photocopiers Loaded With Secrets. http://www.cbsnews.com).
When most people think of data security, they automatically think that the only devices that stores personal information are your computers and laptops. People are generally unaware that nearly every copy machine manufactured within the past decade contains a digital hard drive. This hard drive functions no differently than a computer hard drive. Outside the obvious roles of a copy machine, they now store an image of every document, scanned, copied or e-mailed.
CBS News recently did a report by investigative reporter Armen Keteyian revealing the dangers of improperly handling the secure data that can easily be harvested from used digital copy machines. Keteyian visited a warehouse in New Jersey to see how difficult it would be to purchase a used copier loaded with documents. Keteyian found that it is "pretty easy." In a matter of a couple hours, Keteyian had a truck loaded with copiers at an average cost of $300 each. Once plugged in and operational, the data that was extracted ranged from hundreds of pages of personal medical documents, confidential files of multiple police reports and design plans for a building near Ground Zero in Manhattan, in addition to numerous pages of pay stubs with names, addresses and social security numbers.
An essential tool for any office has now become a digital time-bomb full of highly sensitive information. Proper steps need to be taken to ensure that such information does not get into the wrong hands.
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