Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Identity Theft OFFLINE - Get ready to be VERY scared

<< < (3/6) > >>

Stoic Joker:
Count me as among those who didn't realize copy machines had a hard drive in them. Scary indeed!

Though I'm left wondering how prevalent that is. Would, for instance, my little HP All-In-One home printer also have a hard drive in it? How about my Brother MFC-7840W?

Or is this just a "feature" of "commercial-grade" copiers?-Deozaan (May 12, 2010, 09:07 PM)
--- End quote ---

You'd be surprised just how low that line is (HDD's are cheap...) Pretty much any machine that offers "Job Storage" (fax machine runs out of paper...) gotta put it somewhere. For HP's AIO series printers I'd say no. But for the MFP class machine (the distinction is less than $100), yeah most have them. The brother I'd have to look up, but it will be listed (semi prominently - sales hype...) in the machines spec sheet.

Actually, if you really want to scare the shit outta yourself...Lookup IronGeeks printer hacking articles - Your printer/copier may be hosting Kiddie Porn.

40hz:
Funny CBS is making such a big deal of this. Corporate IT departments have known about this for years. And the techs who service these printers knew about it from day one. And if I recall correctly, this very same story got press coverage some years back. It was in the late 90s if I'm not mistaken...

Four predictions:

1) All those overpriced wipe utilities and "features" will soon be available free of charge from the printer manufacturers. But not before some twit on TV tries to sell everybody one for $100.

2) The used upper-end laser printer market will suffer a temporary drop in volume. Many companies will likely stop selling off their old printers and decide to mothball them "just to be on the safe side" until the scare is over. Should be a good 6 to 8 month business opportunity for someone who wants to go around zapping printer hard drives for these people.

3) Lawyers are already dreaming of class action lawsuits.

4) The boys up on Capitol Hill will quickly call for hearings to address this "huge security menace." Expect a great deal of hand wringing and moral outrage. Elections are coming up, and this one is fairly safe from a political perspective. Especially since many of these printers are also from non-US companies. So expect a token bit of Euro/Nippon 'bashing' from the all the usual blowhards and pundits.


Can't wait to see what happens when they next "discover" that many of these same printers also have unprotected mini-webservers on them - and support javascript as well...

 :-\

Stoic Joker:
^^^Nostradamus has spoken^^^ ;)

 :Thmbsup:

40hz:
^ Don't know about Nostradsmus...

But I am in on a tech news pool. You get to make predictions based on the news reports. You're allowed up to eight predictions at a time. Whoever has the most correct predictions for the previous week wins. You also get to smile insufferably and say "I told ya so!" (And best of all - the rules say nobody is allowed to smack you if you do. Or not too hard anyway. )

If nobody hits, the pool accumulates until somebody does.

I expect to win with this story.  :Thmbsup:

Stoic Joker:
It's as close to a sure thing as there ever was.

Note: Our company specializes in printers, printer refurbishing, & printing supplies ... So I am the "front line" of which you speak... :)

...and yes we wipe all our drives.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page