How your office copier is spying on you in an unbelievable way

[Computer Hope Admin]

This is an amazing, unbelievable – some would say shocking – revelation. Office copying machines contain hard disks that store an image of every page copied by the copier. The material is not encrypted, so if a burglar, corporate spy or identity theft ring gets hold of the copier’s hard disk, they can access a treasure trove of personal information about employees and clients. They can also access company financial information, trade secrets, pay checks… anything put on the copier is stored.

Link

[kanaan]

Is there a specific type of copier or all of them do that

[Geek-9pm]

Is there a specific type of copier or all of them do that

Assume they all do. Watch the video.
And see this related story about three years ago.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9013104/Photocopiers_The_newest_ID_theft_threat

At issue are the hard drives embedded in most copiers and intelligent printers manufactured in the past five years.

Now it is eight years.

[evilfantasy]

All home printers use a watermark that is not easily seen. They say it is to fight counterfeiters but it could also identify you in other scenarios.

Yet there are no laws to stop the Secret Service from using printer codes to secretly trace the origin of non-currency documents; only the privacy policy of your printer manufacturer currently protects you (if indeed such a policy exists). And no law regulates what sort of documents the Secret Service or any other domestic or foreign government agency is permitted to request for identification, not to mention how such a forensics tool could be developed and implemented in printers in the first place.

Full story: Is Your Printer Spying On You?

[rthompson80819]

I would guess that hard drives started showing up in copiers when they became combination copier and network printer.

If there was a user that was copying a big document and several other users sending jobs to the printer at the same time, it became cheaper to put in a hard drive than to add enough memory for all the jobs.

I imagine the software controlling the hard drive is either proprietary or Linux.

A simple fix would be to put a erase or delete button on the machine.

[Helpmeh]

As soon as I read the article, I sent an email to my principal about it. Funny thing, he just went to some privacy security info-thing at the school board office that day and learned about the exact same thing.

[wbrost]

I would guess that hard drives started showing up in copiers when they became combination copier and network printer.

If there was a user that was copying a big document and several other users sending jobs to the printer at the same time, it became cheaper to put in a hard drive than to add enough memory for all the jobs.

I imagine the software controlling the hard drive is either proprietary or Linux.

A simple fix would be to put a erase or delete button on the machine.

actually they do have that option installed but it must be accessed from the panel on the device. The sanitation renders the device unusable during the wipe process (DOD if you have requirements for the number of passes). That means if the device dies there is no way to wipe the device without removing the HDD. This will void the warranty on the printer so it is not advised. If the device has a HDD then you can more than likely get a certificate of destruction from the vendor if you are concerned about data security.