When I first started working in an office, it was a privilege if I were given the passcode or swipe card for one of the photocopiers that sat in the room at the corner of the office block.
This room was especially guarded to keep people out because at the time, photocopier supplies were expensive and paper wasn't the sort of stuff you bought out of the local corner shop.
No, you were extremely lucky to have access and even luckier if they let you use one of the machines.
So when I got my pass I would trot on down to the room, let myself in and settle down to copy hundreds of sheets of paper to multiply them into thousands.
This would be the month-end accounts and we'd need to create lots of copies to be sent around the company to the various departments who would be interested in reading what we'd cooked up for the previous four weeks of inputs and outputs.
After spending a good few hours in there, only popping out to get a drink or a for a quick break, I'd be left with a pallet load of ready-stapled booklets to ship off to the distribution department.
Of course these days, this never happens.
If you were to go into any large company account's office these days then all the information is stored on computer and the compiled accounts are ready each month to be clicked on via Sharepoint or some distributed reporting solution that has interactive graphs and the ability to 'drill down' into more data.
No more flicking through pages of information to get to the bit you really want, no more folding down the corner when you found it and no more leaving it on the train after reading it on the way home.
Of course, if anyone did leave it on the train (it wasn't meant to leave the building) then it would be instant dismissal - that happened to a few unlucky department managers.
So now we don't use photocopiers for those tasks anymore many are drawn into the false belief that security issues are a thing of the past.
Pop everything online, secure it with passwords and IP blocks and you're secure, right? Nope.
Of course we still use photocopiers because we still have an urge to copy things and now those machines do a lot more than just duplicate a bit of paper that's thrust on the platen.
Now they can print and copy from the desktop.
Now they're networked and now they work for everyone and more importantly, they remember what you did.
There are now photocopiers that not only give you the ability to copy, but they store the information that has been copied - just in case you want to copy it again.
Or maybe the boss has put it into 'audit' mode so he can check what everyone is taking copies of? This may stop casual use and put people off sending copies of rude jokes around the office (not that they would what with email) but it does leave a big security hole.
What if those important accounts were copied, stored, the photocopier broke down and it was sent off to be repaired? What if the company repairing it checked, found those accounts and was now in possession of some extremely sensitive information? Photocopiers are far more important in a business than they ever were and without proper policies on auditing and security, they can be your worst enemy.
You should have policies that everyone understands and you should put the same sort of security on your copiers that you would on a server - and ensure you use only reputable companies for servicing and repair.
This room was especially guarded to keep people out because at the time, photocopier supplies were expensive and paper wasn't the sort of stuff you bought out of the local corner shop.
No, you were extremely lucky to have access and even luckier if they let you use one of the machines.
So when I got my pass I would trot on down to the room, let myself in and settle down to copy hundreds of sheets of paper to multiply them into thousands.
This would be the month-end accounts and we'd need to create lots of copies to be sent around the company to the various departments who would be interested in reading what we'd cooked up for the previous four weeks of inputs and outputs.
After spending a good few hours in there, only popping out to get a drink or a for a quick break, I'd be left with a pallet load of ready-stapled booklets to ship off to the distribution department.
Of course these days, this never happens.
If you were to go into any large company account's office these days then all the information is stored on computer and the compiled accounts are ready each month to be clicked on via Sharepoint or some distributed reporting solution that has interactive graphs and the ability to 'drill down' into more data.
No more flicking through pages of information to get to the bit you really want, no more folding down the corner when you found it and no more leaving it on the train after reading it on the way home.
Of course, if anyone did leave it on the train (it wasn't meant to leave the building) then it would be instant dismissal - that happened to a few unlucky department managers.
So now we don't use photocopiers for those tasks anymore many are drawn into the false belief that security issues are a thing of the past.
Pop everything online, secure it with passwords and IP blocks and you're secure, right? Nope.
Of course we still use photocopiers because we still have an urge to copy things and now those machines do a lot more than just duplicate a bit of paper that's thrust on the platen.
Now they can print and copy from the desktop.
Now they're networked and now they work for everyone and more importantly, they remember what you did.
There are now photocopiers that not only give you the ability to copy, but they store the information that has been copied - just in case you want to copy it again.
Or maybe the boss has put it into 'audit' mode so he can check what everyone is taking copies of? This may stop casual use and put people off sending copies of rude jokes around the office (not that they would what with email) but it does leave a big security hole.
What if those important accounts were copied, stored, the photocopier broke down and it was sent off to be repaired? What if the company repairing it checked, found those accounts and was now in possession of some extremely sensitive information? Photocopiers are far more important in a business than they ever were and without proper policies on auditing and security, they can be your worst enemy.
You should have policies that everyone understands and you should put the same sort of security on your copiers that you would on a server - and ensure you use only reputable companies for servicing and repair.
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