This year marks the 50th anniversary of the good, old-fashioned copy machine. But, as Armen Keteyian reports, advanced technology has opened a dangerous hole in data security.
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“software program free on the internets” its called Ubuntu asshole.
Oh good…now all the criminals know this now…thanks for telling them all! WTF??? Take some high powered magnets to the darn things or somethin! I figured they stored copies…pretty obvious when copier scans it and you can retrieve it later.
Oh my god, why is there no auto-erase on these harddisks ??? Didn’t anybody think of this before….
And for those who didn’t know how to do it, NOW YOU DO!!
Well, thieves didn’t know about this till now…… but thanks to this story, they are all in line to buy a used one.. lol..
The scary thing is that this is something we can’t control. Our insurance companies our credit card companies, the credit reporting agencies themselves as well as EVERY company we deal with all have copy machines that could contain our information on them.
@evlmcgyver I hear ya. I just sometimes can’t help think that the news sometimes educates more criminals…that’s all I meant. No harm intended
@aaronkane7 No. Let’s clue in more offices on how to be SECURE with my information!! They wouldn’t even have access to my info unless the printer/copier leaves the premises.
@gpx897 Why would they need to advise anyone? They are a warehouse and besides, it is the OWNERS responsibility to take precautions, not the BUYER.
@Bertminator The criminals ALREADY KNOW! This just give our ignorance a chance to get educated and defend ourselves.
@zman1974 You don’t see the “big deal” because you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I’m sure you are ignorant because of your age.
@artemisnfm Obviously the customer has an idiot for a repairman who doesn’t respect them. Besides, a REAL technician would have a copy of the O/S. And why the hell would I trust an ass like you to do a good job? If I was your customer I’d fire your ass so fast!
yeah I work on copiers. now my idiot customers are wiping out their hard drives which also contain the operating systems.Thanks for letting all the bad guys know about this too. We wipe hard drives or give them to customers if they request it, or they can buy security software. You get what you pay for.
I don’t see the big deal. All of our “Personal” information is out there, and not just on copy machine hard drives. I am sick and tired of people over reacting to EVERYTHING out there.
@Alistairville Many copiers these days have document servers as part of their functionality. This feature allows companies to print documents that are stored on the copier from the copier without a computer. Many companies use saved documents to cut down on their need for preprinted forms.
wow, time for us to clean up our collective acts!
Wow - I had no idea! Why does a photocopier need to store info after the print has been made? Seems like a security hazard that never needed to exist.
Only wiping a drive makes it unrecoverable. Wiping a hard drive requires writing to each sector, and take serveral hours on an 80G HDD
what they don’t tell you is if you look closely all the documents are pdf intentionally scanned into a file storage unit on the copier not just walk up copies stored in the hard drives also in 2 minutes a trained technician can wipe a copier hard drive making it unrecoverable
It would be so easy for the manufacturers to have a “clear all data” button.
If I remove and erase (degauss) the drive, will the copier still function correctly?
Seems to me that the warehouse housing and receiving these copiers should have advised the companies from where they originated about the hard drives and given them the option of removing it before being shipped overseas. This, of course, would entail costs that should be paid by the last owner. Just a thought!
I’ve worked in the copier industry for 15 years and have known about this since the 1st digital copier came out in 1999. The video has it right, nobody except the part of the government that handles national security is willing to buy the option to erase the harddrives.
@loccysmif If they can come up with a way for the copier to access the files from the server and print them, I’ll all for dropping the e-File hard drives. But we’ve got so many freaking forms (thank you, Government Regulators) that it’s much easier to store them at the printer and select and print from there than it is for our employees to weed through directory after directory to find the 1 form someone needs to print. Our employees aren’t tech saavy enough to find files on their own LOL.
