Office devices suspected of identity theft

Office equipment can copy and steal users’ personal data. This is reported by Izvestia.

The journalists referred to the words of Vitaliy Savchenko, Vice-Rector for Digital Development and Information Technologies of the State University of Education. The expert noted that the use of office equipment can lead to the leakage of confidential information. “Office devices can secretly copy information, as they usually have built-in hard drives or memory that can store print, copy and scan data,” the specialist warned.

The author noted that office equipment can also be infected with malware. Savchenko said that the unusual activity of the device, the incorrect display of documents or the detection of unknown files on the disk should make the user suspicious. “However, without special software or peer review, it is difficult to detect such activities,” the specialist said.

Vitaly Savchenko urged consumers to update device software more often, not to use documents with confidential information, and periodically delete all data on the computer.

In mid-June, journalists from The Washington Post reported that printers and scanners can secretly copy documents passing through them. According to them, manufacturers of office equipment use the data for marketing purposes.