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  • Seemingly Innocuous Machines

    Experts warn of identity theft risk

    SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Consumers are bombarded with warnings about identity theft. Publicized threats range from mailbox thieves and lost laptops to the higher-tech methods of e-mail scams and corporate data invasions.

    Now, experts are warning that photocopiers could be a culprit as well.

    That's because most digital copiers manufactured in the past five years have disk drives -- the same kind of data-storage mechanism found in computers -- to reproduce documents.

    As a result, the seemingly innocuous machines that are commonly used to spit out copies of tax returns for millions of Americans can retain the data being scanned.

    If the data on the copier's disk aren't protected with encryption or an overwrite mechanism, and if someone with malicious motives gets access to the machine, industry experts say sensitive information from original documents could get into the wrong hands.

    Some copier makers are now adding security features, but many of the digital machines already found in public venues or business offices are likely still open targets, said Ed McLaughlin, president of Sharp Document Solutions Company of America.

    "You actually have a better chance at winning 10 straight rolls of roulette than getting those hard drives on copiers rewritten," he said.

    Sharp issued a warning about photocopier vulnerabilities Wednesday -- just ahead of tax time.

    The company, one of the leading makers of photocopiers, commissioned a consumer survey that indicated more than half of Americans did not know copiers carried this data security risk. The telephone survey of 1,005 adults, conducted in January, also showed that 55 percent of Americans plan to make photocopies and printouts of their tax returns and related documents.

    Of that segment, half planned to make the copies outside their homes -- at offices, libraries and copy shops. An additional 13 percent said they plan to have their tax preparers make copies.

    Although industry and security experts were unable to point to any known incidents of identity thieves using copiers to steal information, they said the potential was very real.

    "It is a valid concern and most people don't know about it," said Keith Kmetz, analyst at market researcher IDC. "Copying wasn't like this before."

    Added Paul DeMatteis, a security consultant and teacher at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York: "We know there are bad people out there. Just because this is difficult to detect doesn't mean it isn't being exploited."

    Daniel Katz-Braunschweig, a chief consultant at DataIXL, a business consulting firm, includes digital copiers among his list of data holes corporations should try to protect. He couldn't specify names but said a few of his company clients did learn about the vulnerability after their copiers were resold and the new owners -- in good faith -- notified them of the data residing on the disks.

    Sharp was among the first to begin offering, a few years ago, a security kit for its machines to encrypt and overwrite the images being scanned, so that data aren't stored on the hard disks indefinitely. Xerox Corp. said in October it would start making a similar security feature standard across all of its digital copiers.

    Randy Cusick, a technical marketing manager at Xerox, said many entities dealing with sensitive information, such as government agencies, financial institutions, and defense contractors, already have policies to make sure copier disks themselves or the data stored on them are secured or not unwittingly passed along in a machine resale.

    Smaller businesses and everyday consumers are less likely to know about the risk, but should, he said.

    Sharp recommends that consumers take precautions, such as asking their tax preparers or the copy shops they are using about whether their copier machines have data security installed.


    Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin
    Iain Banks missed deadline due to Civ | The eyes are the groin of the head. - Dwight Schrute.
    One more turn .... One more turn .... | WWTSD

  • #2
    Oh crap.

    Comment


    • #3
      And photocopiers have computer hard drives ...why? They seemed to work just fine without them previously.
      The cake is NOT a lie. It's so delicious and moist.

      The Weighted Companion Cube is cheating on you, that slut.

      Comment


      • #4
        They digitally scan the document, store it briefly on the HDD, and then print it. I suppose they're probably too lazy to delete the image afterwards? Though it must be deleted to make a new copy...

        Or maybe they're suggesting that a malicious person could put in a new HDD with software intended to keep copies of the copies...
        <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
        I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

        Comment


        • #5
          Even if the image is "deleted" it's still recoverable fairly trivially. The data is still on the drive; all that's deleted is the reference to it (so the scanner thinks the space previously occupied by the data is free). Until that space is written over with new data you can read the old data right out of it, and even after some forensics can retrieve the old data.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by snoopy369
            They digitally scan the document, store it briefly on the HDD, and then print it.
            Congradulations, you know how to parrot what was already in the article.
            The cake is NOT a lie. It's so delicious and moist.

            The Weighted Companion Cube is cheating on you, that slut.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by DRoseDARs


              Congradulations, you know how to parrot what was already in the article.
              Yet somehow mysteriously manage to answer your question at the same time ... odd, isn't it. Perhaps your question could have been answered by the original article?

              Kuci, I'm presuming the HDD on the machine only holds a few copies (most machines i've used can store up to about 10 to 15 pages), so more than likely you're not going to get much in the way of documents from a normal copier's HDD. You might steal one or two peoples' tax returns, but that's about it. (But if you raid a Kinko's after hours, ten copy machines each, that could be a lot of bank account and SS# information...)

              I highly doubt it's worth the cost of using forensic data recovery... and that has its limits
              <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
              I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

              Comment


              • #8
                You didn't answer my question at all, you avoided it with a copout recitation of information available in the article. Why put hdd's in them when they've worked fine since the 1960's without the risk hdd introduce?
                The cake is NOT a lie. It's so delicious and moist.

                The Weighted Companion Cube is cheating on you, that slut.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by DRoseDARs
                  You didn't answer my question at all, you avoided it with a copout recitation of information available in the article. Why put hdd's in them when they've worked fine since the 1960's without the risk hdd introduce?
                  The answer is copy quality. Old style copiers used systems that had limited print definition. Modern digital copiers aren't photocopiers as they used to be, they are really laser printers and scanners combined. As those technologies became cheaper it was easier for the manufacturers to change how the machines worked - which also makes them quieter, they don't run so hot and they can be networked with computers and used as printers.
                  Never give an AI an even break.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    We use digital copiers now, that's why, which have several advantages over analog copiers (e.g. you can scan in multiple pages at once and have them automatically collated). To do that they need large amounts of storage per page. Thus, hard drives.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Well answered by both of you - both are correct, of course. Quality and speed are both better on digital copiers.

                      Drose, get into the modern age

                      I bet you yearn for the smell of Dittos, don't you...
                      <Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
                      I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Don't get smug with me, S. It took two other people to answer what was a simple, straight-forward question.
                        The cake is NOT a lie. It's so delicious and moist.

                        The Weighted Companion Cube is cheating on you, that slut.

                        Comment

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