Last month CBS News uncovered a warehouse full of copiers hiding personal information within the hard drives. Out of the four hard drives bought by CBS News Chief Corespondent Armen Keteyian, two were from the Buffalo NY Police Department (one had detailed information from the Sex Crimes Unit and the other from the Narcotics Unit in which a list of targets was found for a major drug raid.). Another machine featured A New York Construction Companies plans for a building near ground zero, pay stubs with employees names, addresses, and social security numbers; and $40,000 dollars in personal checks. The last one was the jackpot: a copier from Affinity Health Plan, a New York insurance company. In the hard drive had medical records-from drug prescriptions, to blood tests to highly personal diagnosis’s.
Since 2002 copiers have had a hard drive to store images of documents scanned into the machine. The hard drives can be filled with all sorts of information such as: tax information, birth certificates, death certificates, bank records, social security numbers – this makes them a hot spot for identity thieves.
In a study commissioned by Sharp in 2008 it was found that “54% of those polled had no clue that digital photocopiers store an image of what’s duplicated and that a majority believed running off returns on copiers or printers is a safe practice. When told of the security threat posed by unsecured hardware, however, two-thirds of the people surveyed said they were less likely to copy their financial information on a public digital photocopier.”
So what can we do this about this? Try to find out if your organizations (work, doctor, dentist, accountant) “scrubs” the hard drives of the copiers before they send to be returned at the end of their lease or when they are turned in to be recycled. Scrubbing refers to overriding the data on the hard drive making it unreadable. You have a right to know what they do with your personal information. Also try to use your own personal scanner and fax equipment if possible. Many home printers offer a copy fax option. Keep yourself protected and informed.
