Your Copier Is A Spy
That harmless looking lump of plastic sitting on your desk is spying on you.
Most modern photocopy machines contain a hard drive that keeps a copy of everything you do on it. Just as you finally learn to nuke the drive on your computer before giving it up, it turns out that there is another traitor in your office.
Scarier still is that most used copiers are sold overseas, many to the Middle East. How does it feel to know that your most secret information ends up in the hands of al-Qaida? Osama bin Ladin now knows the date of little Cathy's birthday party, making your house a prime target.
Of course even the truly paranoid realize that all this is pretty silly. The real threat isn't the hard drive, but the monitoring device that the CIA requires be installed in all consumer electronic goods. Compared to these guys, Osama bin Ladin is a pussy cat. Remember copying the “other version” of your tax return? The IRS is chuckling over it as you read this. Getting blown up by a suicide bomber is less painful than what the tax boys can do to you.
Do people really waste time worrying about this stuff? Apparently they do, as there is still considerable reaction to this CBS story. Some are outraged that they weren’t warned, while others claim that any idiot should already have known about this threat. How many of us understand the inner workings of our copier (or care)?
Realistically, the chances of anything we copy being used for illegal purposes is remote, but it seems that we all think the entire world is after our secrets. We really believe that we're so interesting and important that the bad guys are lining up to steal our information. Delusions of grandeur and paranoia are rampant in America, and psychiatry is still a growth industry.
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