a usb scanner can be bought for as little as 60$.

the one id suggest is something called a 'flatbed' scanner, at the cost of desk space, meaning if you have roughly 10x20 desk space including wiring a scanner is for you

you can scan using vendor supplied programs or programs that support i believe the twain interface, meaning its truely plug and play, but be careful, most scanners require specialized usb wires meaning if you lose the wire you might need to buy another scanner or buy a specialized wire for your scanner

should be as easy as pressing a button and it should scan, no major driver installation in windows/macos operating systems

anyways, lets say you have a bunch of forms you filled out you want to store on your hard drive, you'll have to take each invidiaul form, scan it in, save as pdf, and store on your hard drive, or a secure location on the cloud

the risks are being comprimised - papers stored in your home or office are far less likely to be stolen then digital documents

however these documents can be uploaded to websites such as government and finnacial websites, and be emailed to coworkers, clients, or people your doing business with

what i honestly recommend is a two factor authencated one drive from microsoft, especially one included with your login account, or for mac, to buy the 2tb package and store as many on your icloud (just go finder->icloud drive and drag and drop!)!

enjoy!
unidef