Whenever you go on vacation, it’s likely people tell you to make a copy of your travel materials, your ID and your credit cards before you leave town. This can help you considerably if your purse or wallet is stolen by an identity thief – or just a run of the mill pickpocket. What people don’t tell you is that you could be providing an identity thief with your personal information just by using the copier, if that copier saves the copied data on its hard drive. While this type of theft isn’t common right now, it certainly could be in the future as people upgrade to more sophisticated office machines.
This threat was famously put to light during a report put together by CBS. Correspondent Armen Kateyian pointed out that a lot of people neglect to empty the hard drives on their copiers, which means that they have a record of each document ever copied on them. Even if the owner of the copier doesn’t have an interest in checking the drive, he or she passes on the images when selling the machine or giving it away.
One funny thing to come out of this report is that more people are aware that this type of identity theft is possible. A representative of the Identity Theft Resource Center actually commented that, due to its public nature, it may lead thieves who had never thought of stealing images from copiers before to pursue this action in the future.
In order to protect yourself from becoming a victim of this crime, do the following:
*Check to see if the copier you’re using has a hard drive. Usually, only very high-end copiers do, such as ones that process at very high volume or that copy very large pieces of paper. If you’re not sure if the copier on your office does, ask a member of the IT staff.
*If the copier at your office does have a hard drive, find out how often the memory is wiped and if data is encrypted.
*If you aren’t satisfied with the answers you get, don’t copy any sensitive information on the machine. If you can, scan and print it at home instead.
This doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. You can find a three in one printer/copier/scanner for a couple hundred dollars. Don’t use a copier at an office supply store or library unless you’re sure that it is secure. It could subject you to an even greater security risk since you never know who could walk into the store.
Need more identity theft tips? Just visit our blog. With hundreds of articles your sure to find something related to what concerns you and learn what you can do to protect yourself from that particular threat. Or simply follow this link to learn more about identity protection and decide for yourself if you really do need it.