Protect Info on Your Copiers

**john_sileo** · 09-29-2010 09:03 PM

Your business-class photocopier is essentially a computer that can be hacked. It has a hard drive and saves an image of everything you copy. Customer data, invoices, employee records, intellectual capital, personal identity.

Stopping Photo Copier Information Leakage

1. Verify whether or not your existing copier has a hard drive. You should contact the business that sold you the copier for details. If you do have a hard drive, ask them if it is password protect and encrypted (unless you paid something extra when you bought it, it is not).
2. Ask them how you can take control of the situation. Is there a way to regularly scrub the hard drive (e.g., after each copy job, once the hard drive is through speeding up that particular job)?
3. What are your options? Can you purchase an encryption feature that blocks unauthorized access to your photocopier? If your copier is on your local network, are outside users easily able to hack into the hard drive?
4. Stop using public photocopiers to copy private materials as you have no idea how they store or dispose of the images containing your sensitive data.
5. Stop using your hard-drive based photocopier to copy sensitive documents. Purchase an inexpensive photocopier to copy sensitive documents. The cost per page will be more (especially if it uses ink instead of toner), but the long term cost of excessive data storage will save you in the long run. Remember, your data is just like money to a data thief.

**generationy** · 09-30-2010 09:18 AM

WOW, sounds interesting and something I will keep in mind for keeping my company safe. Thanks for posting this! I think one of the things that entrepreneurs need most in the rapidly moving world is a better set of security tools. Many startups are building some amazing companies today but security has to be a priority too! Thanks and good luck!