For Your Personal Saftey ... Watch this video!

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Fred

Fred

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Just When You Thought You Were SAFE ... :eek:

Don't know IF any of you may have seen this 'report' so I thought maybe I would share this link. The 'report' in question is about copier machines being sold ... it may not be the first one that opens when using this link.

Hold on to your seats as you watch this CBS report on the easy in theft of our private information ...

No need for comments from everyone ... just take it for what is worth! Then take complaints to higher people than little ole me!

Any negative comments and I will gladly remove the post or IF any mod thinks it to be inappropriate then they can remove it first.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/19/eveningnews/main6412439.shtml
 
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That's wild. I read something about that years ago, but totally forgot about it.

Wander how many scanned body parts they find on the hard drive? :biggrin:
 
The issue I have is blaming the manufacturer more then the business.

Oh and also for making it news, as there is nothing really we as the client/customer etc can do. But now there is a boat load more people that may not have been aware of this easy access to info before, now are making a run on used copiers..

Being an old hacker, I personally think that sometimes the news gives more information out to would be crooks then it does good by reporting.

An easier fix would be to program in the firmware of the machine a simple wipe feature, and NOT charge 500 bucks or more for an addon, that way selling machine wipe it. So I guess then yes the manufacture can be to blame after all.
 
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It sort of stuck out to me that the manufacturer is creating a problem that they will only charge you $500 to fix.
 
Seems odd to me - all harddrives have a maximum amount of space...has ANYONE ever tried to use a copier and had it say 'memory full' or 'harddrive full'? Seems like when that happened, it would not work anymore...

Now I've never heard of this happening, so I wonder how true that is...
 
maxwell_smart007 said:
Seems odd to me - all harddrives have a maximum amount of space...has ANYONE ever tried to use a copier and had it say 'memory full' or 'harddrive full'? Seems like when that happened, it would not work anymore...

Now I've never heard of this happening, so I wonder how true that is...
Click to expand...

low res copier images take up very little space. A large drive with compression would hold a lot of data. Also as the drive fulls it will rewrite over the beginning starting over...
 
On copiers it is FIFO (First In First Out). Norton makes a product included in it's bundle that does a government class wipe of a hard drive. Requires writing over the drive 3 times.
 
My opinion is this should be included in the lease. the leasing company should be responsible for making sure that all information contained on machine is cleared before selling it to another party.
 
I have helped my dad take apart computers for many years now, you would be surprised at the data stored on a hardrive from customers that wanted a new computer and gave him there old ones. There are programs that wipe the hardrive BUT it may not permanently erase files. My dad has purposely wiped a hardrive using a program and was able to bring all the files back afterwards to show the customer. it only takes about 30 minutes. The absolute best method in crime prevention is to replace the hardrive with a new one and reloading the drivers and programs. If you intend on giving away or selling a computer product this is the best method to protect your information
 
Russianwolf said:
My opinion is this should be included in the lease. the leasing company should be responsible for making sure that all information contained on machine is cleared before selling it to another party.
Click to expand...

Mike,

Leasing companies are financial institutions that allow you to use their money at, what I consider, ridiculously high interest rates and punitive terms.
If your copier does not EVER MAKE a COPY or PRINT, from day ONE, the leasing company MUST be paid, or they will successfully sue you.

The copier vendor should be aware of this issue. Their salesman SHOULD inform you of the risks, but with industry turnover of sales people running under a year on average--not likely to happen.

So, yes, CBS informed the world. We will see if anything changes. I'd bet against it.

One large, successful "invasion of privacy" or HIPAA suit will alter my opinion.
 
BTW, they bought four copiers, they said. EACH one was from a high profile end user. I think the deck was stacked, but I could be wrong.
 
NEW info!!

Just got a report from a vendor. I buy used copiers from him, regularly. New line in the "condition report": "User account information cleared"-NO.

This was never there, before. At least we are now TELLING each other the customer records are there. (At the dealer level)
 
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