[ARRL-OK] This will scare you!!! I never knew this...Copying Machine... important information

[D C *Mac* Macdonald]

For some additional info, here is a message I received from
another friend in response to my original message.
 
While tend to agree with Nate regarding the GENERAL veracity
of CBS, this one doesn't SEEM to be open to left-wing bias.
 
Mac
 

 
----  Another response from a different mail list  ----
 
Scary indeed. Just goes to show there is no such thing as
"privacy" in the digital age.

The problem actually goes back farther than 2002 though.
When I worked at Cornell University years ago, we were the
"beta" test site for the Docutech line of copiers from Kodak
(actually made by Canon Copiers using Kodak equipment). We
had three of them. Even in 1998, they had a big hard drive
in them.
 
Fortunately, I was aware of that fact, and made very sure
the hard drive was fully wiped before we gave up the lease
on them. (I was the Facilities and Security Manager for the
Cornell Business Systems, so this was part of my job).
 
I know that several other places on campus had those machines..
and they did not have any Security Manager in those places.
Makes me wonder how much info went out with them when they
were returned. Think about it....they copied student records..
name, address, Social Security numbers, bank account and
credit card info...all financial records, really.....,
date of birth, etc...as well as student grades, courses the
students took, and any and all student work that was
submitted to the University...health records, you name it..

A lot of these students go on to work for, or even become the
CEOs of major companies....and all that info was probably
still out there on those copiers. 

I wonder if the Syncrotron unit...that is what Cornell called
the "atom smasher" that was used for research on campus...
had one of those copiers? They did work for NASA, and many
other government agencies, as well as private industry.
 
That could be pretty scary if that info got into the wrong hands....
 
----  End of response  ----
 
 
 

Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 14:19:25 -0500
To: arrl-ok at mailman.qth.net
From: cw_de_n5op at sbcglobal.net
Subject: Re: [ARRL-OK] This will scare you!!! I never knew this...Copying Machine... important information
 
At some level, Nate is right: the vast majority of the stuff on 
copiers is of no value. Identity theft is an easy thing to pull: all 
that anyone has to do is go to the court house and pull up any of a 
number of filing: social security numbers are all over those. Court 
documents are public -- anyone can go get copies unless the records 
have been specifically made otherwise. Many such copies are available on line.

Crooks are crooks: they're fundamentally lazy, not exceptionally 
bright or well educated, and after easy money. The vast majority are 
not particularly tech savvy. There is a tremendous amount of havoc 
that could be wrought by tech savvy crooks, and we simply don't see 
it happening.

Thus, I disagree that this is particularly scary. When they were 
living, my parents listened to police communications a lot. In doing 
this, they came to have a rather skewed view of the world: they 
became convinced that all the bad things they heard on the scanner 
was the norm and, as they became older and more infirm, they became 
more frightened by this skew. Don't fall into the same trap:don't 
confuse what is possible with what is plausible.

It's probably a good and reasonable thing for the copy machine 
companies to either randomly encrypt each image, or delete them after 
printing is complete. Deletion is, however, no guarantee that the 
image is not recoverable. That said, it may be more important for the 
lease/resale companies to see to the deletion task. And it is very 
important for companies that bear responsibility for their own and 
their client's security to do this. If a security breach could be 
traced back to lax practices by the company, it would suffer extreme 
liability exposure.

I disagree about the veracity of CBS, however: I trust their 
reporting far more than various other sources. CBS has done a service 
by informing us of how things work. It's up to us what to do with the 
information.

Kim Elmore. N5OP