Is an office copier another security hole?

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTK) decided to make sure that the population is aware of important information: if you made a copy of your priests on a modern copier, then most likely this copy lies quietly and peacefully on your device’s built-in hard drive, among medical, financial documents and, for example, lists of criminals whom the police plan to arrest in the near future.

This story was told by the guys from CBS News in April this year. Most of the modern digital copiers produced in the last 5 years archive the copies made on the built-in hard disk, access to which can be easily obtained by unauthorized people, after the device is sold or written off. After examining several of these discs, the guys from CBS found:

• A list of targets for a police raid against drug dealers in Buffalo.
• Social numbers insurance (and Americans are panicky afraid to cover them).
• Copies of checks in the amount of $ 40,000.

CBS Investigation Video:



Member of the House of Representatives of the US Congress Ed Markey, after publishing this information, wrote a letter to the FTC, where he asked the commission if she plans to do anything about this.

The chairman of the commission, Jon Leibowitz, answered the letter the other day , saying that they took the news seriously.

He said that the commission contacted vendors and sellers of copiers, and asked them whether they would notify customers about it or not, and whether they offer options for more secure archiving. He also said that this issue would be carefully worked out.

These are the pies. Does your copier not behave like that? Are you sure? :)

For dessert - a fun commercial on the topic:


_{via arstechnica.com}