Security Alert: Your Copier or Multifunction Printer May Be Storing Your Confidential Data

Here’s some surprising information that has largely remained under the radar. Most copiers and larger multifunction printers (MFPs) made after 2002 have hard drives that store images of all documents that are scanned, copied, faxed, emailed and printed on them. These devices pose a data security risk for organizations that buy or lease them especially at their end of life. It’s pretty common for all of us to copy the important documents: financial statements, contracts, employment records — anything worth keeping in hard copy. What is an organization to do? We’ve got some suggestions for you.

The Big Scare

Actually this is not news. There was a momentary public flurry about this issue when CBS Evening News’ Armen Keteyian did an exposé on it in 2010 called "Digital Photocopiers Loaded with Secrets" and then it quietly went away again. It’s not a particularly hot topic at the electronics recycling conferences I go to, although recyclers do handle copiers. The nonprofit techies I spoke to about it didn’t know anything about it. One good thing is that this issue does not apply to small desktop printers like HP Officejet and Deskjet printers. Big multifunction network printers and copiers are the machines that have hard drives.

What Are The Risks?

Big multifunction printers and copiers have PC-style hard drives that store documents that are scanned, copied, faxed, emailed and printed on them. They also store data in DRAM memory, the same type of memory that conventional computers use. When copying documents with things like social security numbers, credit card numbers, confidential employment information, health information etc, these devices store digital copies.

Copiers and MFPs are most often used on an office network these days. Their network capabilities, particularly their on-board servers make them somewhat vulnerable on the Internet to hacking and data theft. In looking in to this, I couldn’t tell how big a risk this is. Tech Republic’s piece about the topic says that most copiers and MFPs use proprietary operating systems, which makes them fairly immune to exploitation over the Internet.

The main concern seems to be what happens to these devices at end of life – when you get rid of them. Many copiers find their way in to the second-hand markets with data on hard drives perfectly intact. The CBS News piece graphically demonstrates how that works.

What To Do

As a first step it looks like it’s most useful to find out how your particular copier or MFP stores data and either encrypts it, or clears it, or just keeps it. It’s probably quickest to call your vendor or leasing company to find this out. For DIY folks, Xerox copiers, for instance, can print out a page that lists the device’s configuration information. That at least would tell you if your machine has a hard drive.

If you’re contemplating getting a new or used copier or MFP, try to buy or lease machines that encrypt data and if possible also do hard drive data overwriting either continuously, on demand, or on a scheduled basis. Several HP LaserJet models do encryption and secure hard drive erasing as a standard feature. Most of the big copier and MFP companies like Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, Sharp, and Kyocera sell data security kits that add automatic encryption and erasure features. Factory data security kits enable encryption and/or erasure while the machine is in use in your office. They’re pretty pricey at around $500.

End of Life Precautions

When you’re ready to finally get rid of a copier or MFP, once again contact your vendor or leasing company to find out how they recommend final data destruction on the hard drive and memory and of course the cost.

If you own the machine, you could conceivably do surgery and take the hard drive out. Once out, a few hefty whacks with a big hammer will make the hard drive inoperable and the data unrecoverable. If you lease the machine, removing the hard drive will likely violate your lease agreement and be a big additional expense.

If you own the copier or MFP, probably the most convenient and least expensive data sanitation option is to locate a local electronics recycler to pick up the machine and destroy the hard drive. I called Abe McKay at a recycling company close by, Green Citizen, and the cost for hard drive destruction is $20. They do free pick-up as well for 10 or more IT items (computers, monitors, TVs, printers).

There is at least one company that specializes in copier data destruction, INFOSweep. They sell a Mobile Hard Drive Wiping Station for $1,300. That makes sense if you have many copiers to manage.

What About Public Copy Stores?

One last and disappointing tip I found in multiple articles on this is to not copy or print documents with sensitive information in them at your local copy store or even a big national copy service like FedEx Office. I read through their “Security Compliance Requirements“ but couldn’t make a bit of sense of it.

Image: Courtesy of Shutterstock