The Danger of Digital Copiers - Who Knew?

Who knew?

Who knew modern-day copiers were a threat to personal and corporate security?

After watching our CBS News investigation tonight you'll see the dangers posed by digital copiers. Modern-day copiers - anything built after 2002 - are essentially computers that store an image of every document scanned, copied or emailed onto a hard drive.

Once that rather stunning fact sunk in,  I started doing the mental calculation - adding up the number of times over the years I've used the office copier or that 24-hour shop down the street to make copies of my tax returns, investment portfolio, driver's license, passport or bank records. Safe to say, it was not a good feeling.

As part of our investigation we purchased copiers at a warehouse where 6,000 used copiers sat around waiting to be shipped to new buyers. As it turns out, our copiers contained tens of thousands of documents.

You won't believe what we found.

The copier industry seems stuck in finger-pointing mode. Those that manufacturer copies point to those that lease; those that lease point to those that distribute; and vice versa. Outside of a few companies (one of which we highlight in our story), nobody seems to be stepping up, speaking out about the hidden risk of personal identity theft, the hidden threat to business security.

We'll have a full report on this tonight, on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.