When most people think about problems with copy machines, images from the movie Office Space come to mind.

Paper jams, running out of paper and replacing toner cartridges are all problems that we associate with these sometimes problematic, yet vital machines.

However, these are minor inconveniences compared to the biggest problem that can come from copiers: identity theft.

Many people may not know that copy machines are equipped with an internal hard drive that saves a copy of all documents that are scanned. According to a CBS article from February of this year, many used copiers for sale have not been wiped clean of the documents they hold on their hard drive.

Imagine that all of the documents that your company has ever scanned and copied are now available to whoever buys the used copier that you have just sold.

Used copiers can be a gold mine for an individual who will commit identity theft. The CBS article found several examples of documents re-printed from used copy machine hard drives that gave away customer information such as names, date of birth, address and even social security numbers.

A group called Digital Copier Security, Inc. is doing its best to raise awareness of this problem, but is largely greeted with indifference when notifying organizations about this problem.

What can your company do?

The CBS article states that there are security software available that a company can use to protect the information stored on their copiers hard drives, but notes that these security features are hardly ever used, and aren’t 100 percent effective.

The moral of the story: if you are going to be disposing or selling a used copy machine, make sure to wipe clean the hard drive first. The instruction manual for your machine should come with instructions for how to do this.