Photocopiers have long become a necessity in the modern office, but be warned that they may be a silent spy placed among the cubicles, according to a white collar crime specialist.
Rio Lam, a principal of specialist advisory services at accounting firm BDO, tells of an incident in South Korea, which may serve as a warning to companies in Hong Kong.
The chairman of a property developer in Seoul had gathered his staff in the boardroom for several days to discuss how to submit a proposal for an infrastructure project.
A month later, they were disappointed as the contract was awarded to a rival company.
What made the chairman more furious was that the rival proposal was an exact copy of his firm's, which obviously showed there was a spy in the company.
Investigators were called in to check all the employees of the company but no proof of any leak from the staff was found. In fact, the company had made sure that everyone in the conference room discussing the project did not carry any mobile telephones, check e-mails or use social networking websites to contact the outside world.
The investigators eventually found the spy - the photocopiers in the office. They found there was abnormal data transmission from a number of photocopiers inside the office to the rival company.