Oh Goody, A New Security Threat

Got a photocopier in your home or office?
Chances are, it keeps a record of everything you have ever copied.

Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive - like the one on your personal computer - storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine.

In the process, it's turned an office staple into a digital time-bomb packed with highly-personal or sensitive data.

If you're in the identity theft business it seems this would be a pot of gold.

I highly recommend reading the linked article. It is a good bit of investigative journalism and you will be surprised at what they found. Gotta give credit where credit is due.

So many corporations, doctor's offices, police stations, attorneys, etc. use high tech procedures to protect your data, as well as low tech (shredding).

But now all your information can, and likely already has been, wheeled unknowingly out the back door at the end of their copiers' lease period, off to God-knows-where.

The day we visited the New Jersey warehouse, two shipping containers packed with used copiers were headed overseas - loaded with secrets on their way to unknown buyers in Argentina and Singapore.

Oh, well. I'm sure that's fine.

posted by Laura. at 12:02 PM

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