This isn't good

[MtGun44]

Check this out; copiers are saving everything ever copied on them and
many used ones, loaded with documents are being shipped overseas. . . . . . YIKES!

http://www.chonday.com/Videos/photocopierssecret2

Bill

[Bullshop Junior]

This has been going around for awhile. I know when they changed yhe one out in my MILs officr (Alaska DMV) they took the memory ouy of it befote hauling it off.

[GaryN]

WOW!! Talk about scary. That basically puts everyone at risk.

[dbosman]

Every office that deals with classified material keeps the hard drive for disposal or has it wiped before it leaves the building. That is also part of a normal lease on any of the big name copiers. IT/IS is very aware of this. The people unaware are the local insurance offices, PTAs, real estate agents, and small companies.

[MtGun44]

OK, I know our hard drives go to a chipper at work, no "wiping" program is
considered good enough. 1/4" chunks of hard drive will be pretty tough to
reassemble. :bigsmyl2:

I had not heard of this before for copiers, of course I knew about computers.

Bill

[uscra112]

The new copier we got in 2005 or 2006 at work did this. It also ran the Unix O/S! Maybe to keep it from getting hacked?

Another bit that I learned from an old old friend who was an IBM chip engineer that their copier processors would recognize and refuse to copy currency, by Government order.


Just today I read that the Russian secret service is buying new TYPEWRITERS. Hard copy only, never a file to be copied and disseminated.

[a.squibload]

I sometimes fixed copiers at a defense contractor location,
I would open it up and look away while their employee would
remove the jammed paper. They kept old photoresist drums
for disposal. Just in case.
For digital equipment wouldn't there be some restriction on
export of the parts in question?

[Jammersix]

This was news when I first heard about it at a SCORE class when I started my first business.

That would have been in July, 1981.

Anyone trying to make milage out of it today is sensationalizing the issue, and I wouldn't trust them as a source for news again.

[a.squibload]

Now that I've seen the video it seems that it's not just an export problem.
Maybe the auto-erase function should be standard/required instead of a
$500 option. No NEED to store the images for the function of the machine,
the drive is used as a buffer. Sounds like lazy programming. Or they just
want an expensive option to sell like in cars.
Jammersix, sounds like businesses should be aware by now, is it a
non-issue?

[Jammersix]

I wouldn't say it's a non-issue, but I'd say it's no more frightening than the whole social security number "issue". An incident in the hospital convinced me that positive identification by ssan is far more valuable than any potential risk associated with folks having my ssan.

Different businesses are or are not aware of the hard drive-printer issue. Businesses in general have been aware of it for more than thirty years, but being aware of it and acting on that awareness are two different things. Businesses have been sued out of existence, and I imagine some of them screwed up with this issue, got sued into oblivion, and aren't here anymore. You don't need to worry about them, but there's a thousand fools that go into business every day.

Industries, in general, have also evolved. Take credit cards. Used to be that if someone got your credit card, or, after about 1990, the credit card number, you had a problem. Now your recourse is retroactive. Your credit card number, bank account number, whatever is on some copier hard drive that goes whereever. Some dastardly guy with a cartoon mustache gets your credit card number, and runs wild with it. Now days, first of all, the charges may not even go through-- credit card companies aren't naive, and don't honor $22,400 charges from Siberia when they know you live in Seattle without checking with you first. Next, even if the charges go through, you probably won't be out more than about fifty bucks, and your credit history is reasonably easy to repair. The industries evolved. So with credit cards, you can live in fear of economic collapse, or you can live in the United States, in the twenty-first century. Both my personal credit card numbers and one I used for one of my businesses ended up overseas, in the hands of thieves, and while there was some inconvenience, none of it was that inconvenient, let alone serious

It's good to watch your statements, and not be the guy with your mouth hanging open, saying "what-t-t-t?" when something bad happens. But there's no reason to live in fear of "Bad Things", either.

[texassako]

I have known about this for a few years. Ever test drive a car at a dealership? They usually copied your DL right? They were targets for identity thieves for a while saying they were there to service the copier.

[uncle joe]

not to worry, the nsa has all this information stored safely on their hard drives, is you loose it they can confirm who you really are :bigsmyl2:

[JSnover]

not to worry, the nsa has all this information stored safely on their hard drives, is you loose it they can confirm who you really are :bigsmyl2:

100% true. By the time your copier is ready to be scrapped, the NSA has already collected enough data to produce a copy of you, LOL!

[MtGun44]

It is an irrefutable fact that digital copiers with hard drives DID NOT EXIST in 1981.

Bill

[Jammersix]

You're right. It had to have been later.