How secure is your copier?
The trusty copier has been in offices for years. No longer the humble duplicator, it’s been changing, developing, and getting smarter until it’s also a printer, scanner, and fax machine. And many of us never thought about the hidden hard drive that enables modern copiers to do all these things until CBS News opened our eyes with this report, which you can see on You Tube, Copy Machines: Risky Business?
Because some of the documents you copy probably contain sensitive information about members of your congregation or non-profit organization, it’s a potential problem when you have a spy faithfully recording everything you copy, print, scan, and fax.
No worries, though, because the copier is too big and heavy for thieves to want to steal it, right? True, but sooner or later it’ll get old and you’ll want to trade it in or dispose of it some other way. What to do then? Options include:
- Erasing the hard drive. You can buy software to do this erasing, but the jury is out on how effective it is. Some say wiping it of data a couple of times will do the trick, but others insist the data is still recoverable.
- Removing the hard drive and destroying it. While this task isn’t easy, at least you know your sensitive information won’t wind up in the wrong hands.
OSA&C clients depend on us to take care of the information they entrust to us … and you can be sure we’ll be taking a screwdriver and mallet to the Old Sharpy in our office when it’s outlived its usefulness.
Need stewardship accounting services you can depend on? Call us at (904) 398-4747 or visit our contact page and we’ll give you a call.
