Across the Atlantic, a CBS news investigation has put the frighteners up anyone who’s used a digital photocopier to copy a passport, bank statement or any other sort of important document in the recent past.

The investigation revealed that many digital machines retain an electronic image of what is being scanned within their internal hard drives, enabling identity thieves to gather sensitive information scanned from personal documents (or just laugh at images of various body parts from Christmas parties).

TG Daily reports that once an attacker has targeted and purchased a second-hand digital copier, it is apparently relatively easy to retrieve “possibly compromising information” from the hard drive by simply utilising software that’s freely available online. It seems like a lot of maybes to us but nonetheless it’s got those in Government worried.

Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey has called increased photocopier security (saying: I think the copy machine industry has to step up, provide the leadership and technology that insures this information is scrubbed from copy machines”) while the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said it will launch an official investigation into the matter and inform device manufacturers of the problem.

Speaking with regard to the practices of government agencies in relation to the hard drives inside leased copiers, the FTC has said all internal drives are owned by their respective departments and all such drives are erased and destroyed before the machine is returned.