True Crime: Inside Information from the Imaging Industry
In 1934, forensic scientist Dr. Edmond Locard wrote, “Toute action de l’homme, et a fortiori, l’action violente qu’est un crime, ne peut pas se derouler sans laisser quelque marque,” or translated from the French to good, old English, “Any action of an individual, and obviously the violent action constituting a crime, cannot occur without leaving a trace.” Since then, Locard’s exchange principle, commonly shortened “every contact leaves a trace,” has become the guideline for forensic science and forensic teams around the world.
So what, you may say. Listen, I say! We hear a lot about cybercrime, cybersecurity, data protection, hacking, phishing, and whatnot recently. Fax devices getting hacked, printers being hijacked, data sets by the millions exposed online, and what do most of us do? Sit back, have a beer, some popcorn, and continue watching CSI: Miami while the real crime scene is down the road in our offices.
Some might give up; can’t trace the bad guys anyway. Others are reluctant; we’re too small, we don’t fit their target profile, as if anyone cares who we are, how big or small we are. For some hackers, it’s just for fun, they don’t care about damage or a ransom. Others do.
For now, however, let’s put these badass scenarios aside and focus on the smaller, closer-to-home crimes. And yes, with this, we’re closing in on printing and the never-out-of-date topic””security. Why wouldn’t you want to know who prints what, where, and when? Just imagine you’re handling highly sensitive information. If this information leaks””a statement left in the print tray, a lost document on a train, an “accidentally” misplaced technical document at a meeting””are you sure you don’t want to be able to follow up and at least find out who printed the document?
Too old-school for you? Fair enough, let’s move on to digital document management. Write, save, open, print, email, share, maybe the odd 123-password to protect the document from unwanted content editing. That’s a very sophisticated process. How about end-to-end protection (we can add encryption, too, if you like)? Who created the document, when, and where? Where and when, and by whom was it stored, moved around, opened again, edited again? Signed, and then, oh, edited again? A tiny change to a number in a contract could mean a big win or loss, or a couple of words edited in a protocol can alter the course of a court case and possibly conviction. Who wants to risk that!
But the beauty in all this goes far beyond basic forensic science, analyzing where the paper originated and what toner was used (which is pretty much useless with remanufactured toner), leading us back to a manufacturer and device type, etc. The beauty of an intelligent, software-backed system lies in what is captured, the data, and subsequently what analytics can reveal. From who had access to a certain computer (for the sake of simplicity, I’m not even mentioning cell phones and tablets) to the time, location, files touched, emailed, uploaded, copied or printed where, when, any edits, etc.””you can get all this information in your report. And then, network security! Who logged in from where and when, or were there any violent penetrations? You can trace it all! If you are hacked (let’s hope it never happens) and you have a proper system in place, you can trace your attackers back. And if you can’t, you can get specialists to help you. Everyone leaves a trace, a digital fingerprint.
Is it really that simple? Yes, it is. Sort of. If you talk to the right team. What is going on out there on the internet is rather overwhelming, and I wouldn’t suggest just Google-ing “cybersecurity software,” using the company credit card, and installing it on the network, as this could potentially be the first step in exactly the wrong direction. But with a trusted managed print services partner””and security should be a part of MPS in our day and age””I don’t see what could possibly go wrong, and after a hard day’s work, why we shouldn’t be able to go home open that beer and sit back with a bowl of popcorn and watch the latest episode of CSI: Miami, or continue reading Dr. Locard’s forensic studies.
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