Can you trust your copier???

Thanks for bringing this to the attention of those of us who never pondered this. I appreciate knowing.

I am IT site lead at an oil company and come april most of the people are scanning their tax paperwork on the copier at work and sending it to their accountant. most people dont think about security using someone elses equipment and I am sure if you took one of the drives from those copiers it would be full of personal data. when we return the copier we make sure the drives are wiped but I still would never put my own data on it. Originally Posted by Bluntman

All Digital Copiers Have 1 or more Hard drives, and so do Print Controllers.(size of that hard drive(s) vary on size of machine) And as all of ya'll know, formatting DON'T erase ALL the data. But there are software company's that have software that will erase a Hard Drive to make it ready for resale. Here is an example of 1 such company.

http://www.acronis.com/

Keep in mind that these same company's have software that will retrieve data as well. and also keep in mind that just because it is YOUR personal copier, depending on what you do with it once you don't want it anymore. Throw it away in garbage? believe me, there are people that will look through garbage to retrieve Hard Drives from Copiers, Computers, Printers, etc... Solution: remove Hard Drive & Ram Memory before throwing it away or have a junk man come pick it up. I curently have a CD that will erase ANY Hard drive and it will be so clean, it will be ready for re-sale. Great investment. Note: there are cable adapters that you can hook up any Hard Drive as an external drive and clean it. If you have a real old copier, most likely it is an analog copier and you have no worries there since analog copiers don't have any hard drives and you CANNOT Print to them or scan from them. So, it is easy to know if it is digital and has a hard drive, if you can. Digital Copier Manufactures should have incorporated this in every copier. Maybe after a flood of lawsuits, they will. But for your lawsuit to stick, you will have to prove damages, which IMHO, is hard to do.

CG

Will a DoD wipe solve the problem? Or does it have to be more?

Will a DoD wipe solve the problem? Or does it have to be more? Originally Posted by charlestudor2005

DoD Wipe is a LOW Level Format from www.killdisk.com
But there are MANY software companys out there that will do the Job. Just go to the site that i have posted and read up on the advantages & Thourghness of certain softwares they have. Be sure to get one that will make any hard drive ready for resale.

Hope this helps you.
CG

Actually, I think you misunderstood. I was talking about any software program that meets the DoD criteria for wiping disks.

Actually, I think you misunderstood. I was talking about any software program that meets the DoD criteria for wiping disks. Originally Posted by charlestudor2005

It depends on who is after you. If its the random LEO then a DOD wipe should be sufficient (3 wipes), I personally use the next setting NSA (7 wipes) just in case. Its slower, but much harder to retrieve erased data.

The real thing to worry about is the fact that all those copies of my ass and ball sack are still floating around out there. Gawd, those were some good Christmas parties.

A Software Called: "HDD Data Overwrite Security Unit"
That comes on an SD Card & Installed by a Technician is currently being installed on ALL Digital Copy Machines & is Password Protected. How this works is, It deletes each Copy, Print, or Fax Job from the HDD as it is Happening in Real Time. Look for the little Hard Drive Symbol in the lower right hand corner on the operation panel. It will flash from Green to Red and Back to green as it deletes any job. Note: there are different TYPES for each model copier. Example: HDD Data Overwrite Security Unit Type L or Type I

So the Manufactures are doing something about this issue & it works Great as i have installed 1000's of units already and I estimate within 2 years all copiers will have these installed. Also on the used copiers, the Hard drives are being removed and given to the customer upon upgrades & new machines are having these installed right out of the Box. Not All Copy Machines have Hard Drives, the SMALLER ones just have a stick of Ram which can be removed and broken up so no need for the HDD Data Overwrite Security Unit to be installed on any Small Machine since there is no Hard Drive on those. Actually you don't have to worry about Ram since it don't hold anything in memory once you unplug the machine and plug it back in, all Ram is erased on the stick anyways.

Hope this helps you,
CG

over/under on how long it takes JB to lock this one

+1

As one mod pointed out to me, only review threads have the 30 day time limit. The Rule does not apply to other threads. You'd think the Mods would act somewhat similarly.

over/under on how long it takes JB to lock this one Originally Posted by atlcomedy

This is NOT a Review Thread but, since you never wrote one, i will cut you some slack. lol

Discussion threads are often allowed to flow for an unspecified length of time.

May i sugest that you read the Forum Guidelines at the top of any thread.

#6 - Respect the topics presented by those who start a thread. Attempts to derail a thread or change it's direction is referred to as thread hijack and will be discouraged. Attempts to guide a thread in the right direction are appreciated, while responses to posts which hijack a thread are not.

I hope this Advice helps you from getting points & Obviously a much needed rest from Posting.

CG

I bought a hard drive used repartioned it and formated it with a different file system. Sometime later I made a mistake and accidentally deleted my home directory (an accidental space after rm is very bad) After running some recovery software I ended up with what was obviously snapshots of a group of young women shopping for dresses for ne of their weddings. There was nothing that would of been embarrassing to them if it had show up on the internet but there could have been.

Hard drivers are not valuable enough used compared to the damage the information could do to sell if you are worried about them. I destroyed one hard drive for a friend who was worried by putting it in the wood furnace and turning it into a blob of aluminum. Totally destroying the platters inside is the only way I'd really trust that the info was gone.

This is NOT a Review Thread but, since you never wrote one, i will cut you some slack. lol

Discussion threads are often allowed to flow for an unspecified length of time.

May i sugest that you read the Forum Guidelines at the top of any thread.

#6 - Respect the topics presented by those who start a thread. Attempts to derail a thread or change it's direction is referred to as thread hijack and will be discouraged. Attempts to guide a thread in the right direction are appreciated, while responses to posts which hijack a thread are not.

I hope this Advice helps you from getting points & Obviously a much needed rest from Posting.

CG Originally Posted by Copierguy0

Lately I haven't been around as much. Did I miss the introduction of a new mod?

Lately I haven't been around as much. Did I miss the introduction of a new mod? Originally Posted by Ansley

Nah, he's just copying one...

Nah, he's just copying one... Originally Posted by charlestudor2005

Good one Charles.