Photocopiers can pose data security risk.

• Position: DATA SECURITY

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Time to trade in that photocopie? Be sure to wipe its memory first.

Affinity Health Plans recently settled a case filed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and was fined for potential Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security violations. Affinity agreed to pay $1.2 million in fines because it failed to clear the hard drive of one of its leased photocopiers, which was later purchased by CBS.

Affinity self-reported the breach after CBS Evening News advised it that the copier's hard drive contained confidential patient medical information. Upon researching the breach, Affinity estimated that as many as 344,000 patients may have been affected. And this wasn't the first photocopier Affinity had returned without erasing the hard drive.

The DHHS' investigation found that...