Attendees at August’s Black Hat USA security conference in Las Vegas heard from a hacker-security expert who said he’d been able to install his own software on a printer, compromise its network and access confidential documents stored in it. “There’s an inherent trust in these types of devices,” Brendan O’Connor reportedly told attendees. “I don’t think they’re getting the level of scrutiny that they require.”
Too true, says Ed McLaughlin, president of Sharp Document Solutions. Company secrets can get pulled out of copier hard drives and corporate computer systems can be accessed through copiers linked to company networks, he said.
Small businesses–and their customers–have reason to worry, too. Stores that copy driver’s licenses or tax preparers that go to public copy shops could be leaving that information stored in copiers. And those machines typically get leased several times, so an untrustworthy worker or a user at the next firm that gets that copier could access its info.
Sharp tells clients to use copiers with erasable hard drives; encryption software should also be installed. Companies should restrict the people who have access to the copier system. Needless to say, photocopying your butt still presents safety issues of its own.
