Posted by LKT/CA on 5/29/10 12:31pm
Msg #338989

Copy Machines - A Security Risk?



http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6412572n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

Reply by C. Rivera Chicago Notary Services on 5/29/10 6:28pm
Msg #339039

i think something like this was posted a few months ago?

but interesting...

Reply by C. Rivera Chicago Notary Services on 5/29/10 6:31pm
Msg #339040

can you imagine the digital copy machines taken out of

the White House, or other government facilities?? WTH. Makes you think if those harddrives were 'scrubbed', doubt it!

Reply by Don Courtney on 5/29/10 11:46pm
Msg #339071

White House copiers

Nixon & Clinton would have established strict protocols on this data security item....

Reply by C. Rivera Chicago Notary Services on 5/30/10 10:06am
Msg #339081

I guess we'll never know....but what's so disturbing

is that these copiers are being sent overseas to places like India and China, where potential identity thieves are just waiting to get ahold of their hands on personal info like social security, birthdates and credit card numbers.

For copiers sold at Staples and Office Depot, if they sell digital copiers with a harddrive, there may very well be a security risk in our case.

Reply by John/CT on 5/29/10 8:15pm
Msg #339050

Not for us, I believe. The copy featured in the article were "industrial grade" heavy-duty machines with a reasonably good resale value. Not our (relatively) low-priced desk-top convenience printer/copier/scanners

Reply by JanetK_CA on 5/30/10 4:30pm
Msg #339107

I think it refers to any *digital* copier with a hard drive. I'm no expert on this, but I imagine that some of the equipment NSAs use could have a hard drive these days. Most of ours probably won't be resold, but even if it's sent to a recycling center, do we know what is happening to the hard drive?

BTW, I think this is another reason to avoid having docs printed at someplace like Kinko's, etc. I wonder if they have a privacy policy for all their clients that covers this issue. All copy centers should probably have one these days!

Reply by PAW on 5/30/10 7:18pm
Msg #339126

I agree with John. Chances are the copier that a signing agent has in their 'office' is not a commercial type copier and therefore does not have a disk drive. It does have flash memory (similar to the SD cards used in the new video camcorders) though it should be erased when power is removed from the machine since the type of memory used is typically not NV (non-volatile) memory or storage.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 5/31/10 1:21am
Msg #339161

OK. Good to know. Thanks! n/m

Reply by LKT/CA on 5/30/10 10:19pm
Msg #339151

I think back to the 1980's and 90's when I didn't have home office equipment and made photocopies at Staples....YIKES!!! At least now I know when my equipment wears out, I will ensure that it's innards are disabled.