This is perhaps the scariest thing I've read in the news today. Keep in mind, this isn't something that has been proposed. This initiative is already in place on many printers:
Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You
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This is perhaps the scariest thing I've read in the news today. Keep in mind, this isn't something that has been proposed. This initiative is already in place on many printers:
Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You
yeah.. I believe it is a small yellow on white dotcode like thing..
I've seen it on a HP 4550 at work a while back..
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EFF's docucolor guide
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LOL. This finally went public.
I've known about this (and other things) being done to aid in quick back tracking of criminal activity. The good guys have an understanding that the bad guys are not the dumb asses classically associated with the criminal label.
You'll find this on any color printing device (among the participants) which is capable of printing somewhat convincing counterfeit material.
As Jinxy pointed out, it indeed is the small yellow on black dot sequence.
--Th13
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=264208 - from about a year ago ;)
Yeah, I'm getting the feeling that I'm a little behind the times on this one. I'm surprised I missed it the first time around. I guess the news today is that the meaning of the dots was actually deciphered by the EFF for many printers. It's just a timestamp and printer serial number.
I hearby declare this thread moot. :bigsmile:
I turned to the tacked-up picture of Mario Van Peebles beside me, mustered up enough courage to admit fault, and let out those healing, penance bringing words: 'My bad, Mario Van Peebles'.
=))
Well in all honesty you're not that behind, as said, /. did post that the EFF broke the meaning of the 'inkblots'.
Actually I remember in the late 70's early 80's when my father was working for a local paper, some of the reporters copied (on the brand new color laser jet) some Twenty Dollar bills to see how accurate the copies would look.
After passing the phony bills and reporting the results, there was a BIG stink with the FED's. The only thing that saved their asses was they informed the store clerks immediately about the fakes and they were reporters. I do believe that the paper still had to pay a huge fine.
A follow up article quoted a Fed on the condition of anonymity, that the Feds would be able to track the phony bills to the paper with little to no effort.
There was a big issue again between the Feds and the paper, being that the paper wanted to know the source.
On a side note The color laser was as big as a desk, cost more than a car, and took almost 20 minutes to print three pages.
Lessee, HP introduced the first color laser jet on Sept. 19, 1996, to compete with Xerox, Hitachi and others. General run of color lasers at the time cost $10,000 per. HP's cost about $7300.
;)
Ohh man, we had one of those God awful HP Color Laserjet 4000 jobbies. I remember the toner was like 400 bucks. LOL. How time flys.
I remember hearing about this almost 15 years ago in Technology Review.
I guess it must have been a slow privacy news day.
cheers,
catch
And I thought I spoiled the party... but then there's catch :D
I know about this for about 8 years that they were traceable since i use to work for a litigation company we use the Canon clc 2400 color copier which most large color copyier machines use dry ink
Dudes and dudettes, the issue in the Slashdot article wasn't that this thing is new :) Everyone seems to skim through posts...
The EFF has managed to break the meaning of what that stuff actually is: date and serial number. That is the news :)
cheers!
Wow, the EFF did something that others have done before them!!
Again back about 15 years ago MIT's technology Review carried this article with information about how different printers operated in different ways when trying to print things that looked like money or checks. The article also covered photocopiers. You could use the information provided to determine your own printer's information, which when coupled with brand databases could likely be tracked to a particular store and from there to a particular credit card.
Nothing in this article is new, in fact slashdot is frequently many years behind the times when covering "News". For new developments pick up something like technology review (which is really dumbed down... I mean I was what? 13-15 when that article wet to press?) or join your favorite ACM SIG. In 10-15 years you yourself can be saying... "oh yeah, I remember reading about that."
cheers,
catch
Watch the history channel, Secret service from 1865 to present. You'll see the technique there. Reruns :rolleyes:
edit**** What, you've never seen a crackhead hold up the line in a metro with a waxy bill?
OH YEAH? Well, I knew about this just after Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press -- I noticed little pips on the letter blocks! I was just testing you all. :bigsmile:Quote:
Originally posted here by catch
I remember hearing about this almost 15 years ago in Technology Review.
I guess it must have been a slow privacy news day.
cheers,
catch
Hehe, yes, old news, but it seems to be resurfacing all of a sudden...
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=912
waxy paper jams the machine :pQuote:
What, you've never seen a crackhead hold up the line in a metro with a waxy bill
I might be able to add a couple of slightly different angles to this story.
catch is absolutely correct in that this is very old. There was a lot of publicity about it over here around 10 years ago.............which is when the equipment became relatively common. A law enforcement mate of mine told me that this was a quite deliberate FUD campaign to discourage "amateurs" and office burglaries.
Forgers don't go and buy stuff from regular stores and pay with their own credit cards. They go for stolen or second user stuff. ;)
The fact that there was a timestamp and serial number would also allow easy profiling of any forging using this equipment.
This is not a US government conspiracy. It was an international effort, and our Bank of England was involved. This is the other side of the coin, in that currency designs were changed in several European countries at least, to make it more difficult for this equipment to make a plausible copy of the real thing.
All this was on TV and in the national newspapers at the time.
:)