Copier warning

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Copy Machine Security


You may already know this but you might want to check the site below.

If you have friends with copiers, owned or leased, they need this.

This is an eye-opener!


http://wimp.com/copymachines/

[Canticle]

That was a very interesting item, Cat and it just shows what the different industrial/office/government users of the larger copier, do not know about the equipment, they use. I am sure that the same problem will be found in many other countries and it is a little worrying to know that the copiers have their own hard drive, which stores so much info.

At least, with our home copiers/scanners/printers, we can, ourselves, take steps to destroy the hard drive, if the machine ceases to operate, on a permanent basis, just as with the hard drive of a home computer or lap top.

A very good topic to bring to our attention. Thank you.

[FalconAngel]

That was very..........enlightening.

Something to definitely watch out for.

[grayhound]

So much for so called security .... INHO there is no need for any copier to even have a HD installed. The programing to run the machine is all on one chip, mini programs so to speak. Thats why I personally have my own copier and fax machines. Yes, the fax machines have them to, both for sending and receiving.

[elian]

For a few years now copiers, network scanners and network printers have had hard drives - if you are printing a large E size drawing plate for example, it helps speed up the printing process to have such a big buffer. If you want to make multiple copies you can get relatively pristine multiple copies of a document because it scans everything on the original digitally in one pass.

Where I work we either pay to have the "bit shredder" software installed, or we physically pull and properly dispose of the hard drive when the lease is over.

It amazes me how many people just take things for granted with technology and then are shocked to find out something else. If you READ the instructions for the equipment you bought you know how it operates. It amazes me how many people get spyware on their computer and just figure it's time to "throw it out and get another one", even scarier that these are the same people who drive cars.

I read the operating manual for a Ford Model T once, it takes 20 minutes to adjust the spark to START that car (and hopefully the crankshaft didn't rip your arm off in the process), but at least you had to know something about how it worked. Now ANY idiot can get in the car and pretend they know how to drive while they put on their makeup, shave, read the newspaper and eat a cheeseburger.

Like anything else you have to give technology the respect it deserves as a TOOL to help. Sorry to ramble on and I'm not picking on anyone here personally but I have a general dislike of the way our culture treats technology as a hood ornament or status symbol.

[elian]

. o O ( Imagines the obligatory "I got your *BIG BUFFER* right here!!" <points at crotch> remark )

[TaylorMade]

Never going to kinko's again, man.

*Taylor*

[Canticle]

''Like anything else you have to give technology the respect it deserves as a TOOL to help. Sorry to ramble on and I'm not picking on anyone here personally but I have a general dislike of the way our culture treats technology as a hood ornament or status symbol.''

You are so right Elian, so don't be sorry. Even if we never figure out, how something works, or don't understand the manuals, or what an expert is explaining to us...we can at least try to understand.

Another of my late mother's favourite lines and said with a, ''well it's what you would expect,'' smile upon her face, was...''Well, I'm not mechanically minded, you know.'' She was actually proud of herself, when she said this and this was a highly intelligent woman, well educated and quite well read.

From being quite young, it used to make me want to scream, every time I heard that same line. In her 80s I told her how annoYing it had been, to actually hear her dismiss any ability to understand anything ''mechanical.'' She seemed to think I understood, the things she did not. I don't, but I will try my best to understand, because I am interested in how things work.......unless it is my lap top.......then I am able to disable things, which cannot be disabled.

So, it could be said, that the people the different companies and institutions, in a way, deserve to have their info lifted from the hard drives and all for the cost of a little more equipment, and spending time, as you and your colleagues do, in removing the hard drives. What a ridiculous situation, when spending a few more thousand dollars or pounds, would cause there to be no problems at all.

[elian]

Well, hindsight is always 20/20 - there was a time when I was surprised to learn that printers had hard drives in them - which I learned from reading a printer configuration page that came out of the machine we had just purchased for the office.

I guess I may be guilty of judging and forgetting that some people in this world are good with their minds, some are good with their hands, some are good with both - it takes many different kinds of folks to make the world go around. If I was lonely and depressed I think hands would be better than critical rationalization.

It's just a passionate issue with me - I watched the movie Titanic as much for the sappy romance as the technology and the portrayal of the arrogant Victorian attitude. "This ship is UNSINKABLE!", "Manifest Destiny is our BIRTHRIGHT" - it's much the same thing. The interaction between society, technology and history has always fascinated me and I cringe whenever I see technology being used as an enabler to further possibly "unwise" decisions..