Florence News: Theft By Copier; Identity Theft's New Face
Personal ID Theft By Copier
The newest potential threat to your personal Identity is emanating neither from mail box snatchers nor Internet Phishers and hackers. The newest culprit could be the unassuming photocopier. According to CBS News, more than 500,000 Americans will be robbed of their identities this year with more than $4 billion stolen in their names. Most people don’t find about the ID theft until they are turned down for a loan or credit card.
Before you begin scanning personal or confidential information at the nearest copy shop or self-serve copy station, remember to ask this important question: “Do your copier machines have data security installed?” If the answer is “no”, then copy at your own risk. This is also a question you should ask your tax preparer and office manager.
A few years ago, our only ID risk of using a copier was if we accidentally left our copies in the photocopier. Technology and times have changed, but less than half of American’s surveyed were aware that copiers now carry a data security risk. Most of the digital copiers manufactured in the past five years have disk drives. These are same type drives and data storage mechanism found in your computer to reproduce documents. The result of this memory capability is that new photocopiers can retain the data that you scanned and copied.
Two technical solutions can significantly lower the risk of someone with malicious intent being able to access private copied information. One is having the photocopier information disk protected by data encryption and the other is overwrite capability. Sharp was among the first to offer a security kit for its machines to encrypt and overwrite the information on its machines.
© 2007 Florence News reprint permission to Billy Florence Team Dream Chasers site.
The newest potential threat to your personal Identity is emanating neither from mail box snatchers nor Internet Phishers and hackers. The newest culprit could be the unassuming photocopier. According to CBS News, more than 500,000 Americans will be robbed of their identities this year with more than $4 billion stolen in their names. Most people don’t find about the ID theft until they are turned down for a loan or credit card.
Before you begin scanning personal or confidential information at the nearest copy shop or self-serve copy station, remember to ask this important question: “Do your copier machines have data security installed?” If the answer is “no”, then copy at your own risk. This is also a question you should ask your tax preparer and office manager.
A few years ago, our only ID risk of using a copier was if we accidentally left our copies in the photocopier. Technology and times have changed, but less than half of American’s surveyed were aware that copiers now carry a data security risk. Most of the digital copiers manufactured in the past five years have disk drives. These are same type drives and data storage mechanism found in your computer to reproduce documents. The result of this memory capability is that new photocopiers can retain the data that you scanned and copied.
Two technical solutions can significantly lower the risk of someone with malicious intent being able to access private copied information. One is having the photocopier information disk protected by data encryption and the other is overwrite capability. Sharp was among the first to offer a security kit for its machines to encrypt and overwrite the information on its machines.
© 2007 Florence News reprint permission to Billy Florence Team Dream Chasers site.
Labels: Billy Florence
posted by Billy Florence at
9:35 AM
