Print

[KD8MJR]

About ten years ago we had a high end color laser printer installed and I remember the Tech who was doing the installation said to me, "Make sure no one puts any money into the scanner at the top because it will report the fact that money is being copied to the authorities"   I asked him how exactly does that work.  He said all US money has some marking built into it that triggers the copier into knowing that it's money.  If the printer can connect to the Net it sends out the info over Ethernet and delivers the information to the government.

Well I though that was all very interesting and it got my attention enough that I never stuck a US$ bill into a photocopier, scanner etc.

Last night I am watching a video by Dave and Wow, I had no idea just how far they would go with this stuff.  They are tracking everything 

Take a Look at Daves video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sit6zUQKpJc


73s
Rob

[OZ8AGB]

"Yes we scan"

[KD8MJR]

I wonder if anyone has deciphered the more modern patterns.

[K7EXJ]

If you don't want your networked printer to rat you out to the authorities then give it a static IP address with no default gateway and no DNS options.

[WA2ISE]

maybe a good application for a tin foil hat, atop the printer?   
Be sure it's grounded.   

[KD8MJR]

If you don't want your networked printer to rat you out to the authorities then give it a static IP address with no default gateway and no DNS options.

Unfortunately both of you did not watch the video or else you would not have made such an unrelated comment.   

[KC9YTJ]

Printer steganography, big deal, known about that for 20 years.  Yawn.

[KD8MJR]

Printer steganography, big deal, known about that for 20 years.  Yawn.

So I guess you worked for Xerox?  Since 20 years ago was when it was first used and was not discovered by the public until 10 years later in 2004  

[K7EXJ]

If you don't want your networked printer to rat you out to the authorities then give it a static IP address with no default gateway and no DNS options.

Unfortunately both of you did not watch the video or else you would not have made such an unrelated comment.   

I guess you didn't notice this sentence in the original post: "If the printer can connect to the Net it sends out the info over Ethernet and delivers the information to the government."

[KD8MJR]

If you don't want your networked printer to rat you out to the authorities then give it a static IP address with no default gateway and no DNS options.

Unfortunately both of you did not watch the video or else you would not have made such an unrelated comment.  

I guess you didn't notice this sentence in the original post: "If the printer can connect to the Net it sends out the info over Ethernet and delivers the information to the government."

Craig I made the original Post.  That was told to me by a Tech who was installing a high end color laser printer years ago.   It was made in regards to putting money into the machine and copying it.  Most people who get a very fancy color printer are curious to see how well it can copy money.  He was just warning us not to do that because as far as he knew the machine could detect when currency was being scanned and it would report that info via the net.

73s
Rob

[AA4PB]

But the video you referenced described the printer imbedding a coded image on each printed page so that one could tell that the copy came from the printer rather than a government press. That's quite a different matter than the printer connecting to some government server somewhere and automatically reporting you for printing money.

Too many conspiracy theories on e-ham these days 
 

[K7EXJ]

Too many conspiracy theories on e-ham these days 
 

My playbook is out of date...

[KD8MJR]

But the video you referenced described the printer imbedding a coded image on each printed page so that one could tell that the copy came from the printer rather than a government press. That's quite a different matter than the printer connecting to some government server somewhere and automatically reporting you for printing money.

Too many conspiracy theories on e-ham these days  
 

OK maybe I am creating the confusion,  I thought it was making sense.

We have two different things happening.

1)  When Money is inserted in the scanner/printer combo the scanner can detect it's money and reports the duplication to most likely the treasury dept or FBI. (That was the story I was told)

2) What Dave is showing is that a regular printout has information in it so they can trace it back to the Printer model, serial number and date etc.  As he stated, most likely this is used in an after the fact case where they have a printed out Ransom note they are investigating or a document made by the unfriendly's that was confiscated during a raid.

 It's not for checking if it came from a government press but to locate the exact person that made the printout.   I would imagine the distributors are required to keep records of which store got which batch of printers,  So that can narrow law enforcement's search down quiet a bit, some stores may even scan the printers serial number into their system when you buy them. That will give law enforcement the name and address of exactly who printed out that piece of paper.

The point I was making is that they seem to track everything that touches the digital world.

73s
Rob

[W1GVT]

Old news!

https://www.eff.org/wp/investigating-machine-identification-code-technology-color-laser-printers

[N1FMV]

Rob, sorry, having worked in IT for many years you are confusing several different subjects and distorting others. First your refered to a link on YouTube. That video is only about laser printer fingerprinting. It hasnothing to do with scanning currency. Laser printer fingerprinting has been going on for many years and has nothing to do with the government. It was an idea adopted by most of the industry to cut down on unnecessary warranty repairs and replacements. The industry was losing too much money to customers who were sending in "corrupted" printouts and getting printers replaced under warranty. Fingerprinting at least tied the results to  a specific unit. Now for that tech who told you that your scanner calls uncle sam if you try to scan currency. There is a reason why he is only a low level printer installer ... he is an idiot. To prevent counterfeiting, the secret service, requested that scanner manufacturers voluntarily put code in their scanner drivers that will not allow scanning of U.S. currency. Many complied but the only thing that happens is that if you scan currency the printer driver pops up a dialog telling you that the operation has failed. Nothing is reported back to some secret government mothership. If you don't believe me run a packet sniffer on your LAN and you'll see that it isn't happening. However even that was years ago now and the bureau of engraving and printing has since put more security into each piece of paper currency and no longer requests this from scanner manufacturers. For example my wife uses an Epson perfection 370 scanner on her windows computer to identify currency (she is blind as well) and it does allow currency scanning. The "your scanner will report youto uncle scam" is an old wive's tale based on some incorrect information.
hth
Frank

;

If you don't want your networked printer to rat you out to the authorities then give it a static IP address with no default gateway and no DNS options.

Unfortunately both of you did not watch the video or else you would not have made such an unrelated comment.  

I guess you didn't notice this sentence in the original post: "If the printer can connect to the Net it sends out the info over Ethernet and delivers the information to the government."

Craig I made the original Post.  That was told to me by a Tech who was installing a high end color laser printer years ago.   It was made in regards to putting money into the machine and copying it.  Most people who get a very fancy color printer are curious to see how well it can copy money.  He was just warning us not to do that because as far as he knew the machine could detect when currency was being scanned and it would report that info via the net.

73s
Rob