Police Records Found in Old Copy Machine Copy machines made after 2002 all contain a hard drive that stores a copy of every document the machine has ever scanned, printed, copied, or faxed. If the hard drive is not erased or scrubbed when the copy machine is resold, all of that digital information is still maintained inside the machine.

The Buffalo, New York, Police Sex Crimes Division recently sold several copy machines without scrubbing the hard drives. The hard drives yielded detailed domestic violence complaints and a list of wanted sex offenders. A machine from the Buffalo Police Narcotics Unit contained targets in a major drug raid, and a copier once used by a New York construction company stored 95 pages of pay stubs with names, addresses, and Social Security numbers. 21 Who do you think should be held responsible for the information issues caused at the Buffalo police department?

What types of ethical issues and information security issues are being violated? What types of epolicies could a company implement to ensure these situations do not occur?

What forms of information security could a company implement to ensure these situations do not occur? How does this case support the primary reason why ediscovery is so important to litigation?