October 17th, 2005
Your Printer is Spying on You: the EFF Cracks Xerox Printer Fingerprinting Code
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
This must be paranoia week here at RTN, we have pillows that kill, and what it means when you like steak, and now it was reported that your printer is actually spying on you with hidden and encrypted code developed by Xerox. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) cracked the code embedded in printers, and even has a way for you to decipher your own printer’s tale on their website.
You probably already know that your printer may be secretly outputting hidden data to allow investigators to track you by magnifying and decrypting the info. Now, you can find out what info is being shared. The Electronic Frontier Foundation commissioned a study to decode a series of dots that appear on pages printed by the Xerox DocuColor laser printer. With the help of a microscope and a trusty blue LED (see, those things are useful for something other than mods), the EFF researchers were able to reveal a grid of yellow dots that provide information about the date the printout was made, as well as the printer’s serial number. Is your printer tracking you? If you’ve got a DocuColor and a microscope (or a powerful magnifying glass), you can decrypt your dots via the EFF’s web site. Source: Engadget via Digg
國生三年才開始 says:
彩色雷射印表機大破解
先前的舊文有提到，很多彩色雷射印表機都會在印出來的東西上面留下印記；現在呢，根據各家消息的報導，EFF 已經做出 報告來啦，它們破解了 Xerox 的 DocuColor 系列所印出來的資訊，發現…
October 18th, 2005 at 1:49 am
John Corliss says:
At the original site, somebody wondered why you couldn’t simply locate where the code is printed and then overlay it with a yellow field. Then of course, one has to wonder if that’s the only thing that’s being done to identify the source of documents.
Time to get a stack of magazines and some scissors….
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October 18th, 2005 at 3:56 am
John Corliss says:
At the original site, somebody wondered why you couldn’t simply locate where the code is printed and then overlay it with a yellow field. Then of course, one has to wonder if that’s the only thing that’s being done to identify the source of documents.
Time to get a stack of magazines and some scissors….
80)>
October 18th, 2005 at 3:57 am
Perros says:
ick! surely that kind of tracking should be optional.
October 18th, 2005 at 4:15 am
Bill Kunert says:
The data is on the print to identify the source machine for counterfeit money. Xerox has been doing this for years and I’m sure all the color copier manufacturers are doing the same thing. There is nothing sinister about it unless you are a counterfeiter. I’m a retired Xerox service rep.
October 18th, 2005 at 7:24 pm