Digital Copiers Have Hard Drives ~ Huge Privacy Issue?

Wow, I can't believe I wasn't aware of this. Sometimes my dumbness shines right through I guess, because it's never even crossed my mind.

Virtually all digital copiers made since '02 store everything you copy in a hard drive, and are rarely, if ever, scrubbed.

This video is worth 5 minutes of your time:



How many identity thieves have used this info over and over again?

How many things have you copied that were "private"?

Yeah this isn't really a surprise for office copiers, we have a huge canon station.. doesn't really concern me .. and the option to store your scans is not usually enabled by default.. in normal operation they will store it temporarily until it's done with it's operation.. like while you're printing off hundreds of sheets... or while it's converting a scan to PDF to email it to an address you specify.

The hard drive's main purpose is to store the operating system and act as temporary storage unless you tell it to keep those scans.

While most copiers have a "Flash" drive more expensive have both. You have to disassemble the printer to get to the drive itself. Some times there is software available from the manufacture to "Flash" the drive(s). But do it yourself for assurance.

The most disturbing part of the video is at the end, showing this company shipping used copiers across the globe....with info still on the hard drives.

Makes it very easy for US enemies to get hold of sensitive data. If I were China I would love to get all the old copiers from defense contractors. Of course they will all claim to protect the data, but, we all know that you can only protect what you know about.

More spies in the gremlins. How many of these machines (made in China) have an internet connection for auto program updates. How many can be used as spy equipment. Funny really, you buy the opponents spyware.

P

reply to post by Signals


Every time you complete an I-9 form for a job, you submit a copy of your DL and SS (unless you are one of those that uses a passport instead).

Wow....nice video, thanks for the info.

I wonder where they dump the copiers from The Whitehouse, The Pentagon, Langley.... places like that...you'd think that they'd know about this kind of thing, but stranger things have happened.

Imagine the reading you'd get from them.

CX.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Exactly, and the copier you used to accomplish that...

Originally posted by Signals
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

Exactly, and the copier you used to accomplish that...

Yeah, that is where i was going with that. The copier stores a record. When your copy lease expires and you get a new one....who remediates that data?

I know that when I worked at a call center and we decommissioned a bunch of old computers, we actually F disked them, removed the HD, and physically destroyed the HD (crushing them high heat). Those HD's had about a decade of business run through them, and we had upwards of 400 in total that we replaced.

Didn't the movie Wall Street (I assume the second one Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps) have a copier within the copier and the reason why the good guy couldn't do his copies at work?

The first Wall Street (1987) had a hand-held copier : www.engadget.com...

but I can't find the part in which it was mentioned in the second in 2010.