Color Laser Printers Tracking Everything You Print

It's not new, but it's getting noticed: Jordan writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that several printer manufacturers are now and have been for some time embedding (nearly) invisible serial numbers in every document you print with their color laser printers, allowing law enforcement to track any such document back to the printer which printed it. The technology, ostensibly created to track down money counterfeiters, was created by Xerox about 20 years ago. A Xerox researcher says that the number-embedding chip lies 'way in the machine, right near the laser' and that 'standard mischief won't get you around it.'"

Countermeasures?

[fdiv(1,0)]

Anyone know any methods of getting around this short of physically ripping apart the printer and soldering a few wires together?

Re:Countermeasures?

[way2trivial]

why- do you want to counterfeit cash?

my suggestion? find another same model printer that does this, then DUPLICATE PRECISELY these yellow dots in your final image... two sets, should--- well, supply reasonable doubt at least...

Re:Countermeasures?

[arose]

Maybe he just wants to print anonymous, is that a crime nowdays?

Re:Countermeasures?

[sentientbeing]

Ive never had a problem. When I need to make first contact with my associates in the form of anonymous letters, I usually use cut out pieces of lettering from recent newspapers and magazines then haphazardly glue them onto copier paper with egg white or floured water.

I think most old school kidnappers use the same technique.
the younger ones obviously use email.

Re:Countermeasures?

[arose]

Political flyers would be the prime example. Also a call to boycot abusive printer producers. :-D

Re:Countermeasures?

[Macgrrl]

Print the document - then go get multiple copies done at Kinkos, or some other copy centre.

This serves two purposes - firstly you will have two sets of dots overlaid on each other - presumably this will 'confuse' anything trying to read the dots. Secondly, the dominate signature will be the public access device - if the dots are hard to see by the naked eye, they will be very difficult to copy.

For the tracking to work they need to match a serial number to a user - i.e. the device has to be registered. For small consumer devices (e.g. the HP CLJ 2500) it is simple for the user to simply not register the purchase with the manufacturer, however these sort of devices are unlikely to be capable of producing anything which could be remotely be considered a good forgery.

Large colour devices often come with maintenance contracts attached, so if you knew the serial number and had a cooperative manufacturer, tracking the owner would probably be relatively simple, however you would also find that these devices are typically in a shared user environment (offices, copy centres, student resource centres, etc...).

Having said that, I work for Xerox and conduct audits for large corporate clients regarding what equipment they have and how it's used - even with access to the sales records, client asset registers and physical identifcation of units we frequently have problems identifying every device on a site back to original point of sale. Errors in how SN's have been entered into billing systems or asset registers is not uncommon, chassis or logic boards get changed during maintenance changing the actual or apparent SNs (very common with HP or Lexmark equipment). This would only work with seriously large hardware with fully tracked service histories.

Re:Countermeasures?

[AstroDrabb]

Are you serious? Being able to express free speech in an anonymous way is the most important part of free speak. For example, while I am pro-life, there are many pro-choice people who may want to voice their opinions anonymously because there are many pro-life freaks (not me) out there. Also think in a political way. There are people who may want to speak out against the current government or a even worse, a local government and do not want to suffer any repercussions.

Many of the people who spoke out and signed the original Declaration of Independence were wealthy, and lost everything after they signed! Freedom of speech doesn't always come with no price tag. Sometimes people pay dearly for expressing their opinions, even in the "Land of the Free".

I am a Conservative Christian Libertarian (I know it sounds messed up). The sad thing is that there are many in our nation that have no problems with _more_ government control. These "conservatives" offer excuses like if you have nothing to hide, then why would you care? _I_ personally care because A) I have nothing to hide and B) if I did have something to hide it is none of your @##$@# business! Our government was never set up to be "big brother". Sadly we are almost there. Many of my fellow Christians are more then willing to give up their rights/liberties because they _think_ it will make them more "safe". They think that only "bad" people would want privacy and not want "big brother" to know your every move.

I am sorry but I will not give up my rights, liberty or privacy to make it easier for the government to catch a "bad" guy. As a "good" citizen, I am willing to help the government, police (I give them money every year), etc to stop crime, but my help stops when they try to encroach my rights. Yes, being able to print on a stinking piece of paper without the government tracking me is what I consider a right.

Re:Countermeasures?

[keraneuology]

I'm curious to know how you arrived at a universal human right of anonymity

Please refer to:

TALLEY v. CALIFORNIA, 362 U.S. 60 (1960) [findlaw.com]

McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n (93-986), 514 U.S. 334 (1995) [cornell.edu]

Very relevant is the quote from McIntyre:

"The decision in favor of anonymity may be motivated by fear of economic or official retaliation, by concern about social ostracism, or merely by a desire to preserve as much of one's privacy as possible. ... Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation -- and their ideas from suppression -- at the hand of an intolerant society."

While one can reasonably question anonymity as a "universal" right applicable in all times under all conditions, these times should be the exception rather than the rule with the burden falling on those who say that the restriction should apply rather than on those who say not.

Re:Countermeasures?

[elgaard]

>but I also think there's something to be said for having the courage of
>your convictions and using your name.

yes, but it is only courage if you have the choice.

Re:Countermeasures?

[mgv]

my suggestion? find another same model printer that does this, then DUPLICATE PRECISELY these yellow dots in your final image... two sets, should--- well, supply reasonable doubt at least...


Thinking about it, adding in a speckled yellow pattern as part of your printing algorithm would work - it would just take a little knowledge of what they print.

Does anyone know if the pattern gets printed even on white space? Printing a "blank" page should reveal the pattern and allow a suitable overlay that would stuff up the recognition algorithms.

Michael

You will never know.

[twitter]

Thinking about it, adding in a speckled yellow pattern as part of your printing algorithm would work - it would just take a little knowledge of what they print.

That knowledge would take lots of study to learn and you could never be sure. Printers with enough sophistication to detect currency and refuse to print can pull lots of tricks on you if it detects pattern prints and other investigations. A blank page needs no identification marks at all and the printer may refuse to print any. Subtle variation in letter spacing or shape can have the same effect. Do you know exactly where each pixel in each character you print are supposed to go? Missing pixels can encode a serial number as well as those that are not supposed to be there.

Re:Countermeasures?

[mikael]

Consider the number of bits required to store a serial number.

Assuming 8 digits of hexadecimal, that would give you 32 bits. So a little box 6 x 6 pixels would be enough. A laser printer has resolutions ranging from 600 to 2400 dpi. So you would need far less than one square millimetre to store such information. Even if you double the size of the box in order to have some sort of redundancy, that would still be far less than 1 square millimetre.

Re:Countermeasures?

[azpenguin]

In CMYK, printing a color on top of another color makes things darker. Yellow dots would not show up on the black ink - they would actually darken things up. If you knew exactly what you were looking for, where you were looking for it at, and what a yellow/black overprint looks like, you *might* see it. Obviously, if it is printing on the black, the agencies in question know whee to look and what they're looking for.

Re:Countermeasures?

[Zen]

Just disconnect the yellow. Who needs all three (or four in some cases) colors anyway?

Re:Countermeasures?

[libra-dragon]

Yellow and Blue(Cyan) make Green(cash)

Re:Countermeasures?

[Anonymous Coward]

Steal your printer. Run the page through multiple printers. Encode fake serial numbers in the page along with the real ones.

Re:Countermeasures?

[fireduck]

tinfoil hat time: go to a different city, buy your printer with cash and never send in the warranty card. since it'll never be registered under your name; any documents you print, at best can be traced back to the original store.

Re:Countermeasures?

[kesuki]

Printers are cheap, every time you run out of ink, place old printer inside ion cannon* and turn it into a ball of molten obsidian.. and also never send in warrenty registration etc etc... and even though they can trace documents to a certain printer, since said printer is no longer identifiable.

*= if you don't Own an ion cannon yet, you can build one care of these DIY directions [slashdot.org] (a cyclotron is the key component to an ion cannon...)

Re:Countermeasures?

[Phillup]

One word: Kinkos

Two more words: Pay cash

Re:Countermeasures?

[scribblej]

Hahah, that'll work.

"Hello Kinko's Employee. I'd like you to print 500 copies of this here One-hundred dollar bill. You can just keep one of them to cover the cost."

Re:Countermeasures?

[lightknight]

Disable the alarm system, break in at night. Be sure to replace all used ink cartridges and paper. Then steal something stupid, like a stack of AOL discs. The police and employees will forget about it (no one will pursue a criminal who steals AOL discs, Kinkos has a dozen more boxes and the police don't like being laughed at).

Wait several months, then start buying stuff. But under no circumstances should you live above your means. The IRS, unlike the police, do not assume innocence, and are pure evil.

Re:Countermeasures?

[mesach]

I used to work at a Kinkos in Southern California, We would get Regular visits from the SS looking to track down our Security tapes of the Self Serve color copiers, we got so that we could tell when people were doing illegal things and would point out that they were doing illegal things, and when they scoffed at us we would just point up, and they would "Stupidly" look up and give the cameras a good look at thier face so then when the SS would come in they had a good picture of the suspect.

BTW it better be REAL cash, cause people at kinkos (the average employee) has already played around with copying money, and knows what thier copiers can and cannot do and most likely will spot the fake... as I am sure you know, the copiers at kinkos arent in the best maintenance condition and the colors arent calibrated that well.

Re:Countermeasures?

[yorkpaddy]

I once printed up fake backstage passes at a kinko's. They weren't counterfeit or copied. I designed a logo that looked somewhat like that of a local radio station and put the concert's name on it. The employee said we don't let people print up IDs or counterfeit money, but this is just funny, so he let me. The passes were good enough for me to walk to the backstage area and act like I was supposed to be there. I ended up finding a box full of event staff tags and was able to go whererever I wanted to for the whole concert.

Was I seeing these yellow dots, or others?

[Old Man Kensey]

Speaking of Kinko's, I worked there for about a year and a half. A lot of the time I'd see yellow dots on color-laser customer originals that was being scanned for enlargement to poster size. I'd always remove them during cleanup, because it was easy if you knew Photoshop. They were really obvious when you blew the image up 450% on the screen to get rid of dust (a dust speck on an 8.5 x 11 will look like a big drop of ink at 36 x 48).

Up till now I've always assumed the dots I saw (usually in empty areas, and always in a regular, widely-spaced square grid pattern) were the scanner picking up the paper tone as a very light yellow and trying to dither to match. But was I actually seeing these anti-counterfeiting dots? And if so, was I committing a felony by removing them? :)

I never noticed our Tektronix color lasers (780/7700) putting them on its output, nor the Xerox DocuColor four-color xerographic copiers (DC12/DC2045/DC6060), although the only ones I really gave the eagle-eye inspection to a lot were the DC output since the Teks were in the customer area and we usually only heard about those when they were out of toner or paper. You could see them on the customer originals if you really looked and turned the paper so the light shone off the toner, but you wouldn't notice them if you weren't looking for them.

And if any of you out there in Kinko-land have a grid chart in your store that gives you enlargement and reduction proportions so you don't have to play with the damned wheel, yeah, I made up that chart.

bad idea

[ArbitraryConstant]

If I were doing something that I wouldn't want traced back to me, I would assume that any printer would leave unique markings on the paper, on purpose or not. Bullets have rifling marks, tires have unique markings, etc. Those aren't intentional. Also, the paper might be traceable in the same way.

You can bet there's tricks they don't advertise on the discovery channel, particularly the intelligence agencies.

You can't be paranoid enough. :)

Re:Countermeasures?

[cyanman]

First, this technology has been in use since the very beginning of color laser devices, even before you could use them as a printer. Meaning this started when a color laser printer retailed for close to $100k. It was there (along with other technology) to mark everything that came out of the machine. On the Canon CLC line there is a bar code imbedded on a plate next to the copier glass. Every time you hit the start button, it reads the bar code and compares it to the value stored on the controller board to make sure you had not monkeyed with it, then it prints that bar code all over the page with single yellow pixels. How did they track it? Easy, the thing cost over $75,000. Every one that left the factory was tracked by the manufacturer. They knew where every serial number went. The feds would call up those manufacturers a few times a year asking who a machine with such and such a serial number was sold to. Fast forward to todays commercial equipment and that same thing still applies. I can't vouch for whether you can run down to Best Buy and walk out with a color laser without Best Buy recording the serial number and tying it to your name, but it will dang sure still print identifying info on every page that comes out. It would not suprise me if most of the stuff you drag home marks its territory too, including ink jets. Even if the authorities can't look you up in a database and knock on your door, if they happen to raid your place and grab your printer, try to make new friends in prison.

Re:Countermeasures?

[Tackhead]

> I suspect that if this technology has actually been around for 20 years, it has gotten good enough to be nearly impossible to bypass.

This technology has been around a lot more than 20 years.

In Soviet Romania [google.com], a sample page from every typewriter had to be registered with the police, so that any samizdat produced could be quickly traced back to the typewriter's owner. Use your imagination as to what happened to the owner, or Google for it.

In Romania every typewriter had to be registered with a local magistrate. Samples of letters typed on these machines had to be produced under the observation of the secret police so they could trace underground publishing activity.

- G. Davey, Christian Publishing: Before and After the Communist Collapse

In Soviet Russia [geocities.com], all photocopiers were registered with the KGB and kept in secure rooms, to which physical access was restricted.

Some samizdat works, mostly magazines, were typed on typewriter. The copies were indistinct and hard to read. I realized that the movement against violating human rights was doomed to be an eternal amusement of the few intellectuals without proper copyprinters. But where could one find a copyprinting machine in the country, where all the copiers were affixed with seals at night and placed in the special rooms where only proved KGB members could work on it. There was the only decision - to make the machine ourselves. It had to be easy to make and quite efficient.

- A. A. Bolonkin, Memoirs of Soviet Political Prisoner

The West is probably still playing catch-up.

Re:Countermeasures?

[fataugie]

Good God, has there finally been a "In Soviet Russia" post that was ON TOPIC?

I guess I can eat a gun barrel now, I have seen everything.

Re:Countermeasures?

[RWerp]

To add more spice to it, in Poland even for legitimate (in state's eyes) use of xerox machine one had to obtain a special permission.

Comparisons of laser printers' chips with Soviet Russia are, however, exaggerating. There are probably lots of possibilities to distinguish two copies printed by two laser machines. While giving the state the possibility not just to compare the output of two known laser printers (which I'm sure comes very handy when tracking false money, extortions or some con-man tricks) but to find the printer which printed any possible text is surely disturbing, there is no comparison with Soviet-style secret police. Soviets didn't have to bother with chips, they had people spying on other people, on their neighbours and spouses --- it always works better than technology. The best defence before Soviet-style supervision is assuring your country isn't run by such kind of people.

Re:Countermeasures?

[commodoresloat]

Soviets didn't have to bother with chips, they had people spying on other people, on their neighbours and spouses

Heard of TIPS?

The best defence before Soviet-style supervision is assuring your country isn't run by such kind of people.

Uh-oh....

Re:Countermeasures?

[nyekulturniy]

The point is that Romania had a Communist government from 1948 to the moment they lined Ceaucescu and Mrs. C. up against the wall.

Dictatorships, like any other monopolist, want to limit the free flow of information.

Re:Countermeasures?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hypothetical: Let's say I wanted to print up a flyer protesting the actions of the KKK.

Suppose I wanted to do it in Vidor, TX.

Do I really want that document traceable to me?

Imagine what would have happened to Swift if such a technology were available then.

And moreso, the document is only traceable to a printer, not an individual. Do you really want to explain that to a jury?

Not to mention to possibility of framing someone else.

Inasmuch as the gov. doesn't have transparency in their dealings, I think I

Re:Countermeasures?

[nolife]

I suspect that if this technology has actually been around for 20 years, it has gotten good enough to be nearly impossible to bypass.

Good enough? I doubt it. This is one time where security through obscurity worked. Considering there is not a live market and a real desire to remove these codes, it has not passed the test of many hands. A bunch of hackers can work collectively to get around an Xbox and a Playstation because there is the incentive of more functionality and thrill of experimentation that you can share with others. Printing money is not something there is a big following for and not something you advertise that you are interested in. I would assume many big time money printers people have got around this serial number issue but it can still be used to catch the other 99% that thgouht they knew what they were doing.

Re:Countermeasures?

[EvanED]

Okay, you're a dumbass. RTFA.

If the practice disturbs you, don't bother trying to disable the encoding mechanism--you'll probably just break your printer.

Crean describes the device as a chip located "way in the machine, right near the laser" that embeds the dots when the document "is about 20 billionths of a second" from printing.

It's a hardware thing, not a software problem.

Nice, accurate, sensible dig at Windows though. </sarcasm>

I was right!

[Kenja]

This is why I always print my ransom letters using an old daisy wheel printer.

That's not a daisy wheel printer

[commodoresloat]

It's Microsoft Word. There was no printer available in 1972 that could have printed those....

Oh, sorry. Wrong discussion.

Re:I was right!

[DanteBlack]

Of course a daisy wheel printer can be tracked forensicly anyway since they suffer the same "signature" issues that a typewriter does. Hammer based printers, manual and electric typewriters, leave distinct, identifiable, characteristics in the copy that they produce. For example, wear on the hammer, a tendancy to "drop" a letter etc.

Re:I was right!

[Drakonite]

You overlooked a vital problem in your plan.. The prints created by a daisy wheel are as unique to the printer used as fingerprints to a person, if not more so.

Re:I was right!

[lawpoop]

Yes, but the feds can't go the the daisey wheel printer manufacturer and say "which printer of yours makes this unique pattern?", whereas with the vendor embedded watermarks, they can.

Well, they can still ask the daisey wheel vendor, but they will get an "I don't know" answer.

Re:I was right!

[Jahf]

Which can still be tracked to your employer.

That's why I always use Kinko's, paying cash, while wearing a Santa suit (everyone loves Santa, doesn't matter what time of year).

Re:I was right!

[wankledot]

At least with a daisy wheel it requires "the feds" to have possession of the wheel in order to determine which one it came from. With the dots, they will already know where and when the printer was sold as soon as the have the document.

Re:I was right!

[Epistax]

My soldering iron says that fingerprints might be unique, but they aren't permanent.

Re: Gold-backed currency

[flimflam]

Note, the USD isnt real, its been fake since 1913 when federal reserve was setup privately, its just paper only worth the trust of the govt in getting income taxes to pay for it.

Um, I hate to tell you this, but while the US$ may not be "real" in the sense that it directly represents an actual commodity, there is no less trust involved in a gold-backed currency. First of all, how do you actually verify that the apparently gold-backed dollars in your wallet are actually backed by gold? You'd have to turn them in and trust that you'd actually get some amount of gold in exchange. And how do you know that the gold you own is actually worth something? While gold is actually useful, it certainly doesn't have enough intrinsic value to justify its market price. It's value is primarily derived from the speculation of others like you who trust that it will have some enduring value and is therefor a safe investment.

An interesting story: a friend and co-worker of mine is from Bosnia, and lived with his family in Sarajevo during the war. His mother had saved her gold and jewels believing that they would help them during (or after) the siege. Before the end, however, she ended up trading most of them (they'd be worth a couple thousand dollars, now) for a dozen eggs. It just goes to show the extent to which the relative value of anything can change based on the current situation.

It's the new model...

[LilMikey]

Get dazzling colors, the blackest blacks, and the highest resolution from your new HP Ashcroft.

Just another reason...

[MrDyrden]

To be lazy and NOT send in your product registration card!

I mean, seriously. How else would they know who bought it and how to get a name from that serial number? I guess maybe if the store kept your credit card info on file or something and associated it with the serial number, but how often would that happen?

Lesson learned, if you want to print hundreds of forged checks or counterfeit bills, pay for the printer in cash!

Re:Just another reason...

[6Yankee]

Lesson learned, if you want to print hundreds of forged checks or counterfeit bills, pay for the printer in cash!

But not cash that you printed yourself on a printer that wasn't paid for with cash you didn't print yourself. Or something.

Re:Just another reason...

[bunyip]

To be lazy and NOT send in your product registration card!

I mean, seriously. How else would they know who bought it and how to get a name from that serial number? I guess maybe if the store kept your credit card info on file or something and associated it with the serial number, but how often would that happen?

Lesson learned, if you want to print hundreds of forged checks or counterfeit bills, pay for the printer in cash!



Actually, if you're going to do anything illegal, cash is king. Just print some up and, well, ....

Anyway, police officer friend of mine once who said that if you're going to do something illegal, do it big, do it once and don't tell anybody.

That "once" part of it is key, you could print up a bunch of cash one afternoon, enough to pay for the next printer (with cash, of course), then dispose of the printer.

Greed will get you in the end.

Alan.

Re:Just another reason...

[dmaxwell]

I'll add a fourth rule:

KEEP YOUR YAP SHUT!

I'll assume we're talking about legal jurisdictions that at least pretend to be civilized. A lawyer once told me that most people who are in jail talked themselves in. It turns out that it is usually pretty difficult to get good witness testimony and enough evidence to convict. Most cops don't lose any sleep over it because it is also fairly easy to get most people to incriminate themselves with any number of techniques. You most especially don't go along when they say, "You better start co-operating or we'll really get mean." There is a reason why many law enforcement types don't like Miranda. Remaining silent is your right; never let them tell you any different. They sure as hell will use anything you say against you.

Re:Just another reason...

[over_exposed]

I think the reasoning behind this isn't necessarily that they need you to register the product (but they'd still love you to I'm sure). All this really does is give the police something to compare against when they do a raid on a suspected counterfeiting location.They bust your door down and check the forged bills printed serial number against the serial number your printer embeds in every image. If it matches, say goodbye to your anal virginity and ability to vote for the rest of your life (if you're an Am

Re:Just another reason...

[Cylix]

Sweet...

Now I just have to buy a printer at a yard sale and commit some heinous crime with it.

Later on...

"Yep, looks like he was murdered with this printer, but don't worry we will track it right back to the owner."

Re:Just another reason...

[Chris Mattern]

> Convicted felons cannot vote in any US election in any state.

Wrong. Only seven states (Alabama, Florid, Iowa, Kentucky, MIssissippi, Nebraska and Virginia) permanently deprive felons of the right to vote, and even these allow felons to petition to regain that right. Such petitions are often granted. Most other states deny felons the right to vote only while they are imprisoned, or on parole. Maine, Utah and Vermont allow felons to vote even while they're still in prison.

Chris Ma

HAHAHA!

[Anonymous Coward]

And if all the tape shows is the back of your head then they can pull out the special software that zooms in on the eyeball of the clerk making the sale to get your reflection!

Then they'll just run it through the special face recognition software!

You've been watching a little too much CSI.

Although...

[Anonymous Coward]

"A Xerox researcher says that the number-embedding chip lies 'way in the machine, right near the laser' and that 'standard mischief won't get you around it.'"

Although I hear not buying a Xerox printer will.

Engadget

[Linuxthess]

Well I'm glad someone else here is reading Engadget [engadget.com] and followed the subsequent link to the PC World [pcworld.com] article [pcworld.com].

And then what?

[OpenSourced]

You find some counterfeits, you track the printer, and then what? It's been sold over the counter somewhere to who-knows-whom. That's just a publicity stunt to avoid being ever held responsible for anything done with their printers.

fingerprint

[morcheeba]

It's more like a fingerprint... find a suspect through the usual methods, and the get a search warrant for his printer. If the two samples match, you can build a case on some strong evidence.

It's not a magic bullet, just another tool for law enforcement.

CSI

[The_Rippa]

And as we all know very well, CSI has a machine that will read the code and bring up a 3d map with your current location, a recent photo of you, and a list of every cash purchase you've made in the last six months.

Re:CSI

[chill]

You are confusing CSI with WalMart. You also forgot the computer that tracks every RFID-tagged item you ever bought from there or Sam's Club.

Wait a minute...I think the last box of tin foil I bought was from WalMart! That means it probably has an RFID tag...

IS NOTHING SACRED?!

=Charles

In the old Soviet Union

[pherris]

The early photocopiers in the USSR had a state issued serial number eched on the glass so copies could tracked to that machine and possible the user(s). And the tracking wasn't about counterfeiting either.

It seems they were ahead of the US by 30+ years. Another sign of a dying empire.

Re:In the old Soviet Union

[mdielmann]

No.

The USSR was doing this 30+ years ago. They collapsed 13 years ago (1991). Total span of 17+ years.

The U.S started doing this 20 years ago. We only found out now. So, by the USSR model, it should be collapsing anytime now. Now take a look around and ask yourself, "Is this the America I grew up reading about?"

odd

[name773]

The technology... was created by Xerox about 20 years ago.
It was 1984 twenty years ago.

We can turn this to our advantage...

[LegendOfLink]

...by printing tons of encoded, "dots", so when police read them, they will read, "All Your Base Are Belong to Us!"

The Geek revolution has begun.

Standard Mischief

[softspokenrevolution]

Ha, they don't know who they're dealing with if they think that they only need to protect their devices against standard mischief.

They never learn. . .

[physicsphairy]

A Xerox researcher says that the number-embedding chip lies 'way in the machine, right near the laser' and that 'standard mischief won't get you around it.'

So use substandard mischief. :p

I'm quite serious really. Unless the serial number is tiled, just print a full border and keep whatever stuff you want to cut out away from the serial.

If it is tiled, you have a number of options. You could script a program to 'split' the image so that you print unmarked bands in multiple runthroughs which eventually add up to a full image. You could offset some unknown amount and then surround the serial number with other sequences to disguise the actual serial (would take some knowledge of how serials are assigned to do a good diguise). Both of those would require a little hardware modification. But if you're printing $100 bills. . . .

Anyway, those are just some ideas off the top of my head. The point is that if people know what they're up against, they can find a workaround. Ideally, these kinds of tricks would be kept secret. In the case, the point is trip up ignorant cons who don't account for something they don't realize exists.

Oh well. This will still nail the 16 year old delingquents who decide to pull a fast one on the clerk at their local grocery store.

Re:They never learn. . .

[FFFish]

Seems to me you could swap the yellow and red or blue toner cartridges and easily identify exactly where the dots are being placed. Then... I dunno, make a printer driver that prints black dots at exactly those locations?

Non free and why it's important

[twitter]

The point is that if people know what they're up against, they can find a workaround. Ideally, these kinds of tricks would be kept secret.

You don't know what you are up against and I question your ideals. That's the problem with non free software and this crap is definitely non free. This trick is 20 years old, how do you know what other patterns they put in? Subtle changes in letter spacing, and other color manipulation can do the same thing. This kind of thing is very disturbing.

This is an area whe

cumulative effect is overwhelming.

[twitter]

100% anonymity can be done without too much trouble, as long as you pay attention and stay organized. It never ceases to amaze me that they find people who write worms and other malware...in this day and age, releasing malware with 100% anonymity is trivial.

The aggravating part is that an upright citizen should not have to go to such great lengths. It seems that 20 years ago, Uncle Sam decided that there should be no more anonymous publications or did not take steps to prevent that from happening.

Free so

Back to the old methods

[MagicDude]

Well, looks like it's back to cutting out newspaper headlines to make my blackmail notes.

Old News

[JWSmythe]

This is old news.

There have been news stories about serial numbers being embedded in printing for years. The first I read of it, at least 7 or 8 years ago was the same yellow microprint from color inkjet printers, which was mandated by the U.S. Gov't, to prevent counterfit bills from being printed.

All I've ever done myself is scan in bills at the highest resolution, to show people the microprint (note the double lines around the portrait, one is really text).

It actually doesn't stop anything, people still print them. I remember back in high school there was a story in the local paper about some kids getting dragged away by the Secret Service for photocopying $1 bills and putting them in soda machines. They only had to do one side, and it didn't care about the color, so easy drinks. Our school had a better 'hack'. If you took a water pistol and sprayed water into the bill slot, it'd short out the electronics of it, and you could push buttons all day to get free drinks. I saw it done a few times. :)

But hey, just assume that anything you print is being tracked. Chances are pretty good that nothing you print is going to be all that interesting.

Extremely paranoid? Pay cash for your printer, and get someone else to actually purchase it. Or don't leave home, because 'they' may be watching. Ha!

Re:Old News

[John Seminal]

There have been news stories about serial numbers being embedded in printing for years. The first I read of it, at least 7 or 8 years ago was the same yellow microprint from color inkjet printers, which was mandated by the U.S. Gov't, to prevent counterfit bills from being printed

What is this serial number like? Is it like a MAC address? Is there any way to print the secret serial number out without printing any text or is the serial number embedded in the text?

I wonder if counterfitting is that much of

HS soda hacks

[r00t]

Here's two:

1. Just grab a drink. This works on some machines,
with some choices of drink, if you have long and
skinny arms.

2. Put two pieces of 2-inch clear packing tape
together, so that the sticky side is in. On one
edge, include 1/8 inch of a bill. So about 98% of
the bill is not taped. Give yourself about two
feet of tape hanging off the bill. Soon after the
bill goes in, yank it out.

Note: only do this if you have permission from
the machine's owner. :-)

Full Disclosure

[UpLateDrinkingCoffee]

I don't have so much a problem with the technology in this case, but the lack of disclosure by the companies that produce this stuff (or the agencies that "suggest" they do so). I have no idea whether HP discloses this feature in their manuel, but I know when it was revealed that photoshop now has "anti counterfit technology" embedded in it that no one was told about, people were more than a little irate.

What about CD-R and DVD+/-R

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

I've heard that they burn the drive's serial number into every copy they make. Any truth to that?

I hate to break your party

[the_unknown_soldier]

I hate to break your "They can't stop me i pay cash" party, but i think the idea of these serial numbers is so that if the police suspect someone and have evidence to get a warrant tehy can use printer data to secure a conviction.

The naked truth is...

[xv4n]

The printer has a hidden GPS receiver (yes it works indoors even inside a cave, it's very sophisticated you know), every time you print something, the current location of the printer is also imprinted in yellow using a secret code impossible to detect by human eye. So, there you have it.

Do people actually register?

[kuzb]

I never worry about this stuff because unlike some people, I don't race to fill in that warranty/registration card in the box with all my personal information.

The local retailers I deal with will warranty these items with nothing more than a reciept, which doesn't have any kind of personal information on it. On top of that, if you pay cash (not with a CC/Bank card) how is this serial number useful to them?

Re:Do people actually register?

[wankledot]

Because they know the date and time the product was sold, and almost any store that sells a color laser printer will have a video camera.

Sure, that's hyper-paranoid, but when you're printing counterfeit bills you kinda have to be.

Funny

[hawkbug]

This is hilarious for several reasons.

1) I never register a printer with the manufacturer after I purchase it. I also don't know anybody else who did either. It's a waste of time and an invasion of privacy.

2) Let's say a printer was never registered - and it was paid for with cash at a store like Best Buy. Good luck tracking down the buyer.

3) Even if both the above were not true and the manfucturer knew who originally bought it, one word foils their plans: Ebay. If you buy a printer on ebay, who knows how many hands it's been through before yours. While it is still possible to track it after a sale on ebay, it just got a whole hell of a lot harder.

Famous last words.

[theparanoidcynic]

'standard mischief won't get you around it.'

Now that every hacker on the internet knows about it that chip has a life expectancy of . . . maybe friday.

PROM???

[Nom du Keyboard]

a chip located "way in the machine, right near the laser" that embeds the dots when the document "is about 20 billionths of a second" from printing.

What are the chances that this is in PROM that is burned internally once the serial number is assigned? If so, overwrite it with a new code, perhaps through an undocumented command to the printer controller. After all, you don't think each of these chips is uniquely made, or that they don't have to do something like this to keep them all properly matched to the corresponding external serial numbers.

Or is it RAM, loaded by the firmware on each power-up? Then change your internal printer serial number. Those things are set during manufacture somehow.

Or look up Xerox's patent on the process.

Or swap your yellow, cyan, and magenta toners around, and make the corrections in Photoshop to get the desired image with the transposed colors. They'll be looking for the wrong color dots.

Or add lots of dots of your own.

Ever notice that this isn't the only anti-counterfeiting technology that likes to use yellow. Why is that?

"Mischief," he says...

[Guppy06]

"standard mischief won't get you around it."

It's nice to know that tinkering with a machine I bought and paid for is now referred to as "mischief." I didn't realize they started "licensing" hardware the way some people do software.

Don't forget that feedback path back to the vendor

[Dark Coder]

When you install the driver, significant information is sent back to the printer vendor's website.

What kind of information do you think is sent back to them?

Unless you can print this using Linux CUPS driver at 4800x4800 (which I've yet to see one).

Fool proof cash generator.

[wjsteele]

Ok... how's this look?

1). Make your money in your favorite photo editing software.

2.) Take it to CompUSA/MicroCenter/Frys on a USB Thumb Drive.

3.) Pop the thumb drive into one of those new printers with the ability to print from there.

4.) Print Cash in one of their demo printers.

5.) Use Cash to buy printer.

6.) Return Printer.

7.) Get Real Cash.

8.) Profit.

Seems complex, but... I have to run... I'm off to CompUSA.

Bill

what?

[AC-x]

Crean describes the device as a chip located "way in the machine, right near the laser" that embeds the dots when the document "is about 20 billionths of a second" from printing.

what is this gibberish? Why can't the say it's on a chip built into the printer rather then spouting off about the time it takes the electrons to go from the printers CPU to the laser driver.

Common knowledge for those who work on them

[p51d007]

Anyone in the business of repairing any full color laser printer, photo copier etc, is usually told of this in certification class. At least it is when I go to school on these. On our full color copiers & printers, they specifically tell us that if you attempt to make a color copy of any "money" it will lock up, requiring a phone call to unlock it, and a visit from someone in a black suit and dark glasses LOL. We make a blank copy, and get out a high power loop, and you can see the faint yellow microdots that contain the information. A few years ago, some idiot bought a full color copier, and started on one end of the country, driving to the other end passing off phony money. When the treasury agents got the copies, they looked up the serial number and traced it back to the dealer who was more than happy to supply the information, and they got the guys vehicle info (he wasn't smart enough to fudge his name, etc when he bought it) and they caught up with him, with the machine in his van, and loads of fake bills. Personally, I don't care if they put serial numbers on this, you can't see them anyway, plus, if you are STUPID enough to forge documents, you deserve what you get!

There is a question remaining...

[laughingcoyote]

I have seen several arguments here that this is a perfectly harmless technology, and some of those arguments have been logical and valid. However, it still begs one question: If it is such a useful, valuable technology, why are the manufacturers not informing the customers of this "feature" in their instruction manuals or on their packaging? I checked the websites of Canon, HP, and Xerox, including the specifications of several laser printers. In none of the feature or specification listings is it said "Prints unique serial number to easily identify printer of every document!"

If this technology is so useful, wonderful, and defensible, please feel free to inform those who pay money for your products. They might have a different view to give you. There are legitimate reasons to remain anonymous. (Even if that's just that you want to.) A desire for anonymity doesn't mean that you're doing something illegal, and that mindset is extremely dangerous, getting into the "Well if you don't want cameras in your living room, what do you have to hide?" territory.

OK, so where's a program to read the code?

[Animats]

Where are programs that read these serial numbers? This could be helpful in many ways, such as tracing phony mail-in campaigns aimed at influencing legislation.

And is there a page on the web with the "uncopyable" pattern of little circles that identifies European money and prevents printing? That would make a useful background image for web sites.

Discovering the Number

[buckhead_buddy]

I used to work at a check printing company. My gut feeling is that this smacks of a manipulative urban legend rather than a real technology.

Yes, I'm sure that it is feasible with today's technology, but the expense of doing this on all color printers in the low profit margin color printer market makes me dubious. It will take a law to get all the suppliers to comply and create an "even-playing field" of expense for everyone. The patriotism Xerox demostrates may be commendable that their products are more trackable but it isn't profitable.

Looking at the problems with the coordination of the ISBN book publishing numbers or the social security numbers makes coordiantion of a secret serial number system that's shared between international suppliers even more absurd. "Oops, we accidentally re-used the secret id numbers for the Xerox printers with these knock-off Zerox printers for Tiger Direct."

Finding the serial number is a good first step. Refill an empty toner cartridge with black toner. This will not tell you the serial number (you'll have to do comparisons between printers of the same model to get that), but the presence of the serial number should be easier to find. If it's not there with the black toner then it's either a more subtle technology (modulating the laser itself?) or it's not going to be found.

The great thing about color laser is its comparative cheapness. Dye Sublimation printers were what the check people would use for very impressive mock-ups, but the dye refills were very, very expensive compared to the laser printer refills. Still, when someone in the art department wanted to make a fake United Federation of Planets Passport, they'd go for the dye sub printer when the boss wasn't looking.

Print the same blank sheet thru lost of printers?

[Tangential]

I wonder if running the same sheet of paper, printed as a blank page, thru 10-20 printers if it would garble this registration info to the point of uselessness?

Re:Those rat b---

[Kenja]

"That just has to break some kind of privacy law"

What makes you think we still have such archaic things as privacy laws anymore? Dont you know that if you have a private life the terrorists win?

Re:Those rat b---

[Anne Thwacks]

Dont you know that if you have a private life the terrorists win?

And if you dont They've already won

Re:Those rat b---

[Kohath]

Here's a worse one:

Did you know that every time you touch something, you leave an invisible mark that's unique to you and can be used to track where you've been?

It's a privacy nightmare.

Too damn easy to bypass

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Just print on yellow paper when you don't want to be traced and the whole problem goes away. Doesn't work for counterfieting currency- but should work for the odd ransom/extortion note.

Re:Too damn easy to bypass

[DaHat]

Bah! You still rely on a piece of potentially traceable technology... with my hate letters (give me money or else ____), I make it a point to cut my letters from various magazines with a straight razor and then glue them to the intended paper (which often too is another magazine page), all while wearing gloves.

Of course... I would have gotten away with it all too if it wasn't for those pesky kids... and the tracking chips in the glue.

Re:Those rat b---

[BlackMagi]

All your prints are belong to us

Re:Those rat b---

[bersl2]

Nobody prints with green ink. That's a primary color in RGB, and surely nobody prints in RGB. The printing primary colors are CYMK: Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and blacK. No green.

Re:Those rat b---

[cei]

Just curious, but when was the last time someone sold a printer with green ink? Color printers have been CMYK (or more) for as long as I can remember. (Maybe the 7 color ribbon for the ImageWriter II???)

Re:Those rat b---

[hameluck]

"we'll you'd hope" is the key.

Say you print some literature that the government doesn't like. There's all sorts of things the government doesn't like. It doesn't (at least the current republican government) like abortion, marajuana legalization, protests against the war in iraq. You print these up and post them around, pass them out. Laws don't change themselves, it takes action. Disagreeing with a current law is perfectly legal but in the current climate in America might be considered subversive. So

Re:"Standard Mischief"

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

No, but I have a whole labfull of "enhanced mischief".

Re:Privacy...

[arose]

Laws are easy to make. Getting rid of tracking technology once it's there is hard.