New Jersey Gives Copiers a Bad Name

Deleting data from the hard drive
And you're to blame
New Jersey
You give copiers a bad name

Just a little rearranged lyrics from "You Gave Love a Bad Name" by New Jersey artist BonJovi. 

Just a few days ago the New Jersey Assembly voted in favor of Bill A1238 which basically states that the owner (business) or the lessor or the lessee of Digital Multifunctional Copy Machine "shall destroy, or arrange for the destruction of, all records (means any material recorded or preserved by any means) stored on a digital copy machine which was purchased by that business, and which is no longer to be retained by that business, by erasing or otherwise modifying those records to make the records unreadable, undecipherable, or nonreconstructive through generally available means". 

I believe A1238 still needs to be voted on by the NJ Senate in order to become law, the bill would take effect on the 60th day following the enactment.

Here we go, this new law does not cover any systems that were sold prior to the enactment and would only affect those systems that were sold or leased on or after the date of enactment.  New Jersey law makers have nothing else to do than to create a bill that was based on an expose from CBS news more than two years ago on multifunctional copiers that were already 5 years old?  In short that means these copiers were manufactured in 2005.  Since that expose from CBS news, all copier manufacturers have stepped up to the plate and offered new advanced security measures like overwriting the hard drive up to 9 times or event driven data destruction to destroy the data on the hard drives.

Do we really need a law for this?  Did NJ lawmakers not do their research on all of the new multifunctional copier offerings from copier manufacturers and see that they have addressed the issue?  Did they not think about protecting the data on the existing systems that are in the field? Did they forget about the tens of thousands of computer servers that are also owned or leased by businesses, and how a million or more pc's also.  Most of the computers and pc's are not resold and carted off to the land fill (sneak in at night, grab a few servers or pc's and you'll never know what you'll find).  Data is data whether the images are stored on a copier hard drive, a pc, server, removal drives, back up drives and cell phones.   BTW, shouldn't this law also pertain to laser printers that have a hard drive?

Ricoh HQ Duplicator on Steroids w/Envelope Feeder

I just ran across a thread on the net in reference to someone needing additional information about a Ricoh Digital Duplicator and if that system was capable of printing envelopes. I've had Digital Duplicators in print shops for a number of years and all of these printers are using these to print envelopes along with various other documents.

The Ricoh HQ9000 is capable of stacking about 100 envelopes and you can print to the device with either a PC or MAC. The one draw back is that you can only print single color envelopes, but the quality and reliability is awesome. At 150 pages per minute, you really have to baby sit the duplicator,  if you're doing runs of 500 - 10,000, again the feeder only takes 100 envelopes or there about. Cost? jesh....cost has be something like .0001 when you are doing runs of 1,000 or more.

Anyway, back to the thread about the envelope feeder on the duplicator. Take a look at the video from straight shooter, they have a device that will work with the Ricoh HQ9000 for long runs.

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Hard Drives & Security "Easy Solution"

There's been a tremendous amount of traffic on Twitter and Google in reference to theft of identity and theft of corporate secrets from copier hard drives.

Almost all of the Copier Manufacturers have released statements in recent weeks in reference to how secure their new systems are and there are options for new systems that will scrub, erase and delete the data on these drives. Any company considering a purchase or lease of a new copier/MFP should ask about the options that are now available.

With some of the manufacturers such as Ricoh, they have a removable hard drive. The hard drive actually sits outside of the system and can be removed by an authorized user. The hard drive is secured in place by using a provided key lock system allowing for authorized removal and quick and easy storage. However, this feature/option is not available with all of the Copier/MFP's that Ricoh offers.

As the industry moves forward, the all manufacturers need to offer a removable hard drives for all of their models no matter how big or how small. At the end of the life cycle of the copier, the hard drive can be removed and owner of the MFP keeps their hard drive with their data and they can do what they want with it.

Removable drive makes sense for the customer; they get to keep their data, the leasing company; they get the system back with the original OEM hard drive still in place; the dealer; gets to keep it simple for all parties involved. A few weeks ago a Print4Pay Hotel member stated that even if a hard drive is broken into chunks data can still be retrieved. So, unless you are going to shred your hard drive, you're probably better off keeping your old drive with your data.

But, what about that copier that was shipped back to the leasing company a few years ago? My thoughts, most likely it was either dismantled for parts, still sitting in the warehouse or was sold to dealer that has already re-sold the system and its back in a new office making copies and prints.

Just yesterday, I had to print a copy of my taxes to the Copier/MFP and I actually thought twice about hitting the print solution. Thoughts ranged from; will and image be retained on the hard drive forever, where will this copier/mfp be in a few years from now? What it came down to is that I needed it to print the documents, thus I sent the file. Personally, I consider printing to a copier/mfp as very low risk and would rate giving my credit card to a gas station attendant a higher risk (Here in NJ, we get our gas pumped for us, and we pass less at the pump for a gallon of gas.... go figure).

So, when selling a new system, advise your customer of how or who will delete or remove their old hard drive data, and if you're in the market for a new system, don't be a cheap skate, spend the extra bucks if it's an option. If you turned in a system a few years ago and nothing has happened with your corporate secrets or your identity, I'd let it go, odds are nothing will happen.

-=Good Selling=-