Slashdot Mirror
New Technique Could Trace Documents By Printer
An anonymous reader submits "From this article at Purdue News, 'Researchers at Purdue University have developed a method that will enable authorities to trace documents to specific printers, a technique law-enforcement agencies could use to investigate counterfeiting, forgeries and homeland security matters.' The neat thing is that they are exploiting the characteristics of the print process itself to identify the printer." <update> One of the folks e-mailed me to say that the HP LaserJet 9000dn was one of the big ones tested with.
Because this has no free speech implications at all.
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
Sure, it sounds nice for the gov't to track down bad guys, but what if the technology to do this becomes public? Most of the /. population won't be able to pass notes to girls without them finding out who its from!!!
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
They got the memo about cover letters on their TPS Reports.
Michalangelo Progr
The technique uses two methods to trace a document: first, by analyzing a document to identify characteristics that are unique for each printer, and second by designing printers to purposely embed individualized characteristics in documents.
Sorry to rain on your parade, Homeland Security, but if counterfeiters can counterfeit hard currency worth a damn, they can certainly hack a printer to make it quickly change configurations at the drop of a hat. Get your marker and bic pens ready, all ye counterfeiters!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
The neat thing is that they are exploiting the characteristics of the print process itself to identify the printer.
From the article:
The technique uses two methods to trace a document: first, by analyzing a document to identify characteristics that are unique for each printer, and second by designing printers to purposely embed individualized characteristics in documents.
So there are actually two ways and the second requires redesigning printers. I wonder if the government will push printer makers in to changing their printer in the "interest of national security."
The problem here is many of the peices they would use to track the printers are integral parts of the replacable toner cartridges and printer ink kits. Only printers that have perm drums and heads will be easily traceable.
The neat thing is that they are exploiting the characteristics of the print process itself to identify the printer.
How is that neat? That's how forensic fingerprinting works with everything! Guns, typewriters, paint, etc!
....I use to use one of those automatic birds that would carve the letters into the stone tablets, but the cost of replacement beaks was very high (and BTW, only use OEM beaks, 3rd party beaks void your bird warranty)
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
No law enforcement methods have any impact on Freedom of Speech whatsoever. It's the laws that sit behind them that do. As long as freedom of speech is enshrined in law, no such methods can be used against it.
Then maybe they can finally track those unverifiable CBS documents back to Karl Rove.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
"DOCUMENTS PRODUCED BY BUSINESS MACHINES
It goes without saying that the proliferating market of modern business technology
such as copiers, fax machines and printers reduces a systematic forensic approach.
However, a number of projects report progress in the following:
Classification of full colour copiers
Doherty (31) gives an overview on state-of-the-art classification of ink-jet printers
and inks. Interestingly, the findings indicate that the results of TLC analysis
"before" and "after" show significant differences because the ink-components are
modified by heat during the print process. For specialists in traditional typewriting
examination, the overview of Frensel (41) on typewriters produced in the former
East Germany is of interest when identifying products manufactured before and
after World War II. Gervais & Lindblom (43) present a case illustrating detection of
digital manipulation on a facsimile printout. Hammond (47) compares the collected
technical data of facsimile machines. The demonstration of secondary typewriting
and alterations by the use of grids is today easily carried out by using the
appropriate computer software, as shown by Hicks (55). If there are actually
different computer assisted typewriting data collections, the system DRUIDE,
developed by Holzapfel & Marx (58) is comprehensive and designed for routine
casework. The traditional typewriter - disappearing on the market - still has its
forensic impact. Few references go back to the roots of typewriting examination and
commercial production, e.g., in the former Eastern Block. Horton (60) compares the
identifiability of the flatbed scanner and its products by comparing the marks on
scanned images. Lauterbach (68) describes 30 fax machines and their characteristic
printouts for identification purposes. A survey by Tweedy (129) on state-of-the-art
colour Laser copier identification by bitmap coding includes an overview of
counterfeit protection by the characteristics and class of the major copying
machines on the market. Wagner (134) presents the "Australian Toner Library" and
the discriminating power of FTIR as compared to ATR. In a similar direction, but
looking more specifically at the dating and sourcing of the Transmitting Terminal
Identifier on a fax document, is a study by Westwood & Novotny (138). White et al
(139) show the benefits of Surface Enhanced Resonance RAMAN Scattering
Spectroscopy (SERRS) for an almost non-destructive spectroscopic examination of
inks. Winter (141) studied the evidential value of the dot pattern of colour ink-jet
and bubble-jet printers for individual identification."
http://www.interpol.int/Public/Forensic/IFSS/meet
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
I recall a Brady Bunch episode where Alice was typing letters and sending them to Jan to make her feel special. She was feeling overlooked, being the middle daughter and all. Well the Bradys traced the letters back to Alice's typewriter because it dropped its Y's. Not sure what all of this means, but it seems ontopic.
It really seems to me that the gist of this method is "people are so used to inkjet printer banding that we'll introduce some on purpose as an identification key".
Much like audio watermarking, this is likely to affect the output quality. But don't worry, you'll never notice.
From TFA, the "fingerprinted" doc looks just like anything that comes out of my old DeskJet 693C ;)
Cool. Too bad Dan Rather didn't have this tool in his investigative arsenal before he set out to destroy the president with forged documents.
I work for a large copier/network printer company (Not Brand X), and our machines have been able to do this for a very long time. A VERY tiny bar-code style serial number is placed everywhere in any printed and copied document (you need a microscope to see it).
This might be news because small desktop printers have never had small enough 'pixels' to keep it smaller then your eye can see.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
What about HP inkjet printers with the way they print from the cart? Toss it and do you have a "new" printer according to this kind of tracking?
Of course it uses characteristics of the print process to identify the printer! What the hell else COULD you use? The evil bit?
And if this should occur, they have to resort to printing identifying "watermarks" in documents, which isn't terribly different from existing currency technology/etc.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
As far as those who are concerned about the government secretly tracking them down by the printer signatures in their anonymous manifestoes I think there are other things to worry about from the government.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
I can see an emerging market in "stealth printers"(tm) if that happens. This is likely to go the way of the P4 serial number. -- nothing interesting here
make a virus/worm/spyware buddy that secretly emails a copy of everything that goes through your spool directory to bigevilspies@usa.gov
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
to those who appreciate freedom.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
About 15 years ago, I had an attorney do some work for me and he boasted about a software package he used that made small custom mutations to the font each document was printed in, such that once such a document was printed, it was very difficult for anyone to add or replace pages without being detectable as a later change to the original document.
but consider professional organizations whose printouts cannot be altered (anyone here ever dealt with architects?). Will they too be subject to government regulation? And who is going to administer the integration of the technology? Surely not the government...don't they have better things to spend tax dollars on? The DMCA and other such legislation are bad enough. Next thing you know we'll all be wearing little radio transmitters with our name and prisoner numbers on them... http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml ?articleID=49901698
When I'd batch up my print jobs for 6 months, print them all out the immediately, destroy my printer and get a new one. :)
Revolutions are never about freedom or justice. They're about who's going to be top dog. -- Kilgore Trout
Xerox (and others, I'm sure) have done this for quite some time.
About 5 or 6 years ago a friend that owned a print shop and used a Xerox color laser printer told me about Xerox imprinting every print with a watermark that could be decoded to obtain the serial number of the actual machine used in the printing.
The watermark was undetectable to the human eye and didn't alter the presentation of the image.
They did this at the behest of the government because it's so easy to print money on these things. This way they can track the money back to the machine via the serial number.
Lose Weight and Feel Great with Isagenix
Oh come on. They could do this on CSI a couple of years ago. What's taken 'real' law enforcement so long????
Just another term to add to your IT vocabulary.
GO BOILERS!!!
So basically, they are saying if they had the original printer, and the document they could put the two together.
In order for this to provide the means to track a forged document to it's source will require printers to be "tested" when sold so their "printing fingerprint" can be recorded.
Otherwise, at best if can serve as a confirmation, not a tracing method. This is how ballistic characteristics test are used. They are used to confirm that a gun fired a bullet, not to trace the bullet to the gun.
My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.
The first method is "by analyzing a document to identify characteristics that are unique for each printer". The second method is "by designing printers to purposely embed individualized characteristics in documents".
Does the second method seem a bit immoral to design a printer to purposely be "flawed" in that sense? Simply, it's just purposely tagging a printer". I guess it could be compared to tagging downloads.
In my opinion, it seems wrong to do the second method. But for the first method, I see no problem with that.
"When we find this crazy typewriter, we'll have our kidnapper."
Wow! A plan to have traceable embedded signatures in all printers and resulting documents. Finally, a proposal for a government mandated way to trace all documents back to their creator. Remember it is for homeland security, so don't dare oppose this on the idea that it would chill free speech and decent. Besides, think of the children....Boy I feel safer already.
Really, I have to say this is a bad idea. The article goes beyond a forensic technique of trying to match documents to the printer that made it. They conclude that that is not possible in cases like ink jet printers with print heads on the replaceable ink cartridge so they propose embedding an "extrinsic signature" in all printers and printed documents. This would mean that every document printed would have a traceable signature; the protest letter you sent to congress, the art project you made with your kids, the protest flyer you posted on campus--everything.
The excuse for this new proposal is that it is for homeland security and preventing counterfeiting. But the broader truth of the matter is that this would be another nail in the coffin for free speech. Already, new police powers through the Patriot Act help make every posting on the Internet traceable. With the internet you have to connect from somewhere and almost all of the connections are logged.* Printed material was a way around this. Nobody could look at the paper and trace it back to you without some luck. You could write letters, post flyers and what not, and say what you liked. This proposed system would alter that landscape significantly.
Considering that there has not yet been a single conviction from the thousands of post 9/11 secret roundups, I'm reluctant to give our new found police state the benefit of the doubt.
*Yes, I know this is an over simplification.
Dude, your anti-MS FUD is in volcano mode there. You should be MUCH MORE concerned about the govenrments use/abuse of this proposed tech tna MS or any other commercial company.
I read the better-than-a-notch-in-the-e dept. and thought, "Hm, Microsoft's logo has a notch in one o."
[
This reminds me of older detective novels, where letters typed on typewriters are often important clues. The forensics lab looks at the blackmail note, and knows the exact brand and type of the typewriter it was written on - after which the killer, being the only one in a hundred miles with that specific typewriter, is easily found :)
Jan
Now everyone will be able to figure out just what laserprinter those "typewritten" pages came out of...
Crow T. Trollbot
Print the original on your home / work printer. Take it to a copy shop to make a second generation. Take it to another copy shop to make a third generation copy. Repeat until your personal level of paranoia is satisfied. Copy the finals semi-anonymously at a high volume, self service location in a large city. Check for security cameras first.
Slashdot - the place where you can look like a genius by restating the obvious
Lay off the Lithium.
Or start.
SOMETHING PLEASE!
A lot of what makes the difference in each printer such that they can tell the printer that was used will be based on mechanical variances between printers. And I would have to guess that if I drop my printer from a height of about 6 ft, there will be enough mechanical difference in the way it printed before I dropped it that their test (at least the mechanical part) will be unable to detect that it was my printer.
For that matter, I would have to think that switching ink cartridges (or drums), switching gears between printers, switching paper trays, possibly even print drivers will have a large enough effect that this method will not be able to correctly identify nearly as many printers correctly as they claim given the fact that conterfeiters will be trying to beat them at their own game.
Just my thoughts...
Now I am going to have to dust off my old 9 pin colour epson to my document forgery? I'm going to hate that!
back documents printed to virtual printers (like that of Adobe Distiller) !?!
There's another *New* technique that Law Enforcement will be using, it allows them to view data on your hard drive that has been erased!!!!
I boycott signatures
every owner of a typewriter had to register a model typesheet by their police authorities.
So what? Anyone can file the inside of my handgun so it doesn't match the bullet that was pulled out of the victim.
You put locks on your house, yet they're quite easy to pick.
This is just another tool in a very large arsenal.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
3rd party beaks void your bird warranty
Huh. When I tell printer support people that I've used third party stuff, they *usually* give me the bird.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Crap, yet another DRM-less/security-less gizmo I gotta hoard for when they're all wired into Ashcroft's penal colony.
Never find out about Kinko's.
you want to fool the man, then copy your printed documents at a local copy center (like kinkos) and all those mini-barcodes will more than likelly dissapear (especially if you do it 2 or 3 times on each successive copy)...then destroy and the orginals.
You think your inkjet will last six months?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Does anyone beleive that if these devices make it to market, the "evil doers" are going to rush right out to the store and buy a printer with a "Homeland Security Inside" sticker on it? And then properly register it? Anyone with serious criminal intent is either going to use a non-equiped printer, or a printer which is stolen or misleadingly registered.
Don't get me wrong, this is kinda cool, and I'm sure it will help for things like kidnappings, but "Homeland Security"? Give me a break.
ILL Clinton Machinima Movie Maker
This reminds me of what I heard about Romania under Ceauscescu, where typewriters had to be registered with the secret police so any document could be traced back to its author.
Pardon me for doubting you, but doubt is usually my first reaction. Microprint is a common security feature for documents but it does require special techniques. Perhaps if you were to post more details on this alleged process?
Aaaah! Don't do that again! I spent almost a second trying to parse that word as Greek "onto-" + "-opic", meaning "having eyes which exist".
Hmmm, now I just need to insert that word into the Go lexicon.
"We will actually modify the way the printer puts marks on the paper," Chiu said. "This method is very difficult to get around because information about the internal workings of specific printers is not commonly available, even on the Internet." How long before this changes and people start soldering modchips into their printer circuitboards?
Guess it's time to ebay all my printers.
--If I needed a sig, I'd have a sig.
is free speech enshrined? I was under the impression that the laws did not effect 'law enforcement' anymore anyway
The excuse for this new proposal is that it is for homeland security and preventing counterfeiting. But the broader truth of the matter is that this would be another nail in the coffin for free speech.
*Puzzled look* Huh? When did they confiscate all the pens and pencils?
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
This would mean that every document printed would have a traceable signature; the protest letter you sent to congress, the art project you made with your kids, the protest flyer you posted on campus--everything.
If your speach requires you to be untraceable, then by and large you've already lost.
So we'll be able to catch the dumb terrorists now.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Krusty blew up Courtesy!
"This process is called development," Allebach said. "Because of variability in printers, the drum does not rotate at a constant speed. If the drum slows down a little bit as it is rotating, you get excessive development, so the print will look a little dark. And where the drum speeds up, you get too little development and the print will look a little bit light."
The resulting bands of light and dark cause imperfections in a text document or an image. Because every printer has its own unique pattern of banding, or intrinsic signature, the imperfections can be exploited to trace a document to the printer on which it was created, Chiu said.
Right. Well, what happens when I buy a new drum, fuser, or toner cartridge, heck, even replace all the internal rollers, and everything changes?
The arsenal is big enough. It's time for them to actually do their jobs and stop whining about needing more tools. How about if everyone had to register with the police staion nearest their place of employment? Is that just another tool in the fight against child abuse? How about we tattoo everyone on the forehead with a bar code so the pulic-place cameras can track everyone? Would that be just another tool for Homeland Security too?
The Constitution guarantees my right to be secure in my effects and papers and as far as I'm concerned that means I have a right to dispose of my papers in any way I see fit. That includes anonymously if I so choose. Giving anybody, especially the government, the ability to track those papers back to me is just not right. Are we having fun yet watching the Constitution get raped repeatedly these last few years? Once they're done with it you-know-who will be asked to bend over next.
China is trade partner, that the US toys giving a "Most Favored Nation" designation to. They from the trade world's standpoint do not count as "anti-US."
Mod point free since 2001
Boy are you out of date. SMS, the only way to message in class.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The real reason was to show that, as gay as Kerry and Mary Cheney are, they're nowhere near as gay as you are.
Well, enjoy the ride on the mantrain.
Except that each high volume copier will embed its serial number, making each step possilby traceable to you at that copy center.
Low end laser and ink printers are so cheap currenrly - you can pay for two new ones with the first sheet of paper you fill with forged $ bills.
Smash the el-cheapo printer, dump the parts, get a new one, start over. Probably not very effective to stop counterfeiting currency.
If that ever happens, I'm gonna start buying network printers instead, problem solved.
Well, currency in Canada, I hear, has the US flag flying over the parliament building. You need a fine lens to see it.
I suspect that for years that each group of words is using some printer serial number identifier micro-printed in the characters.
If that is true, then printer resolution has been better than we've been led to believe, and that would mean that we have been paying for "featureful" but crippled machines.
There was an incident years ago in which a disgruntled employee use ms word to produce a threatening or libelous letter to microsoft (lower-casing/deprecation of ms' name intentional/perpetual with me...). But, microsoft, via it's lawyers, compelled the man's employer to produce the document.
They didn't want a "copy" or forward of the document, they wanted the original of what they had received. Apparently, each copy of word automatically generates a tracker code and it is embedded IN the FILE.
So, I would not be surprised if a portion of a page has a mosaic swirled among the ink. With proper scopes or pattern matching, a sufficiently-large document might tell not only what printer serial number, but system information, ISP, IP, CPU make/model, OS, memory, and even the names or contents of other files.
Imagine that. So, if you're the type to print or digitally forward hateful, libelous, seditous, or other types of watched communications, consider that your filesystem's file names or random words could be sifted by spoofed web page sites, printer command codes, or the like.
In the mid-80s, I knew a US Marine (at a navy school/course I attended) who used a motivational tagline:
"Where thayer's a whay, there's a HWILL!"
If you can THINK of it, someone can DEFEAT it or EXPOSE it is what I think, or read that as, today.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
W00t, my fortune is made. I ought to be able to sell my pre-embedded ID LaserJet on eBay for what it cost me now to the paranoid of the world. Bids start tomorrow at $900!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I suspect that for years that each group of words is using some printer serial number identifier micro-printed in the characters.
If that is true, then printer resolution has been better than we've been led to believe, and that would mean that we have been paying for "featureful" but crippled machines.
You left your tinfoil hat at home and your theories are leaking. For god's sake get another one before they find you!
What happens if you toss out/donate/give away a printer to a "bad guy"? The original owner gets nailed if that printer is "misused"? I got it - the FBI tracks printers just like firearms (they do it and supposedly illegally keep the records).
I never knew my HP5L was such a dangerous thing....
[Of course it's client-server; it runs on a LAN]
So who will be first to decode the eprom and send that presidential death threat using the ex-boyfriend's printer code?
There go my high-quality Photoshop prints. And just when color lasers were getting good enough and cheap enough to consider.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Print it, fax it, copy it and then let them try to find the orginal printer.
If I'm really THAT into keeping my identity secret, I'll just print it out at some kiosk in a mall.
HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
Just hide a id number in the "random" point dithering used in colour prints... It would come from the electronics, so no use changing toner/ink cartridge..
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
I'm making all my important documents by cutting out letters from the newspaper.
In the history of espionage, the photocopier was maybe the most successful spying machine. The trick was to build in a camera.
:)
These days, the bigger copiers use harddisks for caching. It's cute, spy tools are built in standard now. I suppose most corporate businesses aren't aware of that
Isn't it amazing how the U.S. Government is so eager to adopt whatever technology is available to track back printed documents while defeating initiative after initiative that would require all handgun ammunition to carry microscopic markings, allowing police depts. to trace bullets back to the buyer?
o uthpiece.htm
What about the national ballistic fingerprint system that would enable law enforcement officials to trace bullets recovered from shootings, like those fired by the Washington-area sniper, back to the weapon used? http://www.wmsa.net/news/NYTimes/nyt-021007_hci_m
Just in case you haven't noticed, fingerprinting texts, not bullets or guns, is how a country wins a war on terror or a war on crime.
If anything, your handwriting is far more uniquely identifiable. Also, handwriting will be traceable directly to you, whereas they'd still have to find a way to determine who printed the document if they traced it back to a printer.
What, i have to write text in this field too?
*Yes, I know this is an over simplification.
No....no, it isn't.
so, now I expect that Lexmark will claim that third-party toner cartridges could get me in trouble with the law if they had been previously used for some nefarious purpose.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Buy a second printer for blackmail only. Voila. Problem solved.
The whole point of my post was to eliminate the original distinguishing marks which are more traceable to you, by using high volume public photocopiers which broadens the possible user group into the thousands. While I meant photocopier, I imagine that since laser copiers scan and print at around 600-1200 DPI, they would lose most of the marks after a few generations as well.
Slashdot - the place where you can look like a genius by restating the obvious
Come on....nobody's lower than the French.
They can't match you to your fingerprint unless it's on file. And they can't match your document to your printer unless your printer's "fingerprint" is on file.
It's called "printerprint."
Yes, you can use pens and pencils, but if you want to reproduce those documents on a copier that has an embedded sig then you still have the same problem.
Keep in mind that it was the printing press, with its ability to cheaply mass produce content that helped spread the kind of dissent that led to the American Revolution. These days, Thomas Paine, who printed patriotic tracts like Common Sense, might be tracked down as a possible terrorist.
The ability to truly speak freely is fading, if it ever existed. There is no absolute right to free speech, but in anonymity we can say the things that a repressive government doesn't want us to say. The INDUCE Act could have made it illegal to even write about how to copy a book with a photocopier--really--because that could constitute "inducement of infringement," so free speech really can be in danger, thus anything that clamps down on our ability to speak anonymously is also an issue.
they want to do away with cash too...
gah.
Here is the URL to the Canadian web site with info on the flags of Canada. The Red Ensign is the second from the bottom. http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/symbols/df5_e.cf m
Jefferson is rolling over in his grave.
Trace the document back to the original tree from which it was made. Only then you can color me impressed.
--- Ban humanity.
Faxing those ransom letters should still be safe.
"Money is a sign of poverty." - Iain Banks
So what happens if you register your printer purchase and then sell it to someone else? Do you now have to worry about getting raided if the purchaser uses it for counterfeiting? I imagine the Secret Service would figure out what printer the documents came from, figure out who originally bought that printer and make the incorrect assumption that the original purchaser is the counterfeiter.
Why are we putting Big Brother in our devices instead of designing currency that's hard to counterfeit?
Actually, it's the modern Canadian flag. I just had a look at a Canadian $5 bill with a microscope. It's a bit hard to tell because of lack of detail in the bill, but it's definately the modern maple leaf flag.
The rumour that it's a US flag started because the shape of the flag blowing in the wind looks like the head of a US bald eagle. You don't need any special optics to be able to see that.
Jason
ProfQuotes
In fact, a dot matrix seems like it would be easier to identify, since it is more closely related to an actual typewritter than, say, an inkjet printer. And techniques for analyzing typewriter evidence are already well established.
The 9000 is the largest printer HP makes. It is very, very fast. Probably not as fast as some of the Xerox docucenters and such, but fast.
The problem is that people are stupid and don't actually examine cash they take. It used to be that cashiers could tell instantly if you handed them a fake bill, on feel alone. it's not like the US Mint and Secret Service haven't make efforts to tell people how to ID real currency...
Please help metamoderate.
Where is Dan Rather going to get "evidence" for his stories now?
S
He told us this story (BTW, I have no idea if it is true.) about how all photocopiers in the USSR had a serial number etched on the glass so the copies it made could be traced. Much easier to track down papers proclaiming the joys of Liberty I guess.
Well, that teacher has past on but I really wonder what he'd think of all this? All kidding aside is the US starting to look a little like the old USSR?
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - HST
I thought that HP laser printers used Canon engines. If that's the case, how would one be able to tell the difference between an HP laser printer and another printer that used an identical engine?
The article also mentioned being able to fingerprint the document based on the drum, but most lasers I have seen integrate the drum with the toner cartridge. So does this mean every time you change your toner, you are changing your fingerprint?
What if you replaced the scanner? The formatter? The fuser? These replacement items are all readily available to anyone. All of these could serve to completely alter the minute characteristics these guys are looking for. This whole thing might look cool in a lab, but I seriously doubt its practicality.
-R
In other news, a spike in the sale of used printers has been noticed.... I know i'm dusting off my old HP 690c
printers have been doing this for 10 years or more.
This can be used to crush dissent. It is like old Soviet Russia having strict licensing of printers and fax machines. Now, we don't need the licensing. The feds simply need to compare sales records to the tattling trace build into the printers.
Maybe they track down the creator of the faked Bush service documents and find out if it really was Karl Rove.
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
They're comparing the minor defects in the printer drum so that each printer effectively has a fingerprint, I saw this nearly 10 years ago on Tomorrows World, abit late isnt it? Maybe they just made it better, but still its a very old idea which has probably been used in most other printing technologies.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
If the printed sheet was dipped in paper immediately after printing then left to dry, I wonder if this would be enough to distort the recognition? After all the paper would dry slightly crinkled, and the ink would run - a tiny bit - which would make it more difficult to trace. Oh, and it would need to be distilled water, so the water residue can't be linked :)
Well, that would sort of solve the counterfeiting problem without requiring serialized printers, wouldn't it?
Speaking of making up shit, hows the search for WMDs goin nowadays?
-William
God is everything science has yet to explain.
Related to parent post because of the source: The Bush "Guard memos" are forgeries! The Hailey Connection
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
You know the government can compare fingerprints. The government can compare DNA. The government can match paper fiber samples and patterns. Compared to all the government can do right now, I'd say this ability is rather innocuous. First of all they have to find the original printer for one thing.
The Cheese Stands Alone.
So they can trace back 'unwanted information' to individuals, and make sure the infractions dont continue..
"oh but its for your safety" -- Bull
---- Booth was a patriot ----
but but... can't CSI do that already!
Here in Brazil there's a lot of investigation at the Governement that goes out to the public and reveals a lot of information that prejudice everything.
http://www.michel.eti.br
Just photocopy it then fax it... and then try to find the "source"...
... in color copiers? I seem to recall back in the day of the new Canon CLC series of copiers (200 ~ 500) that in the yellow pass of the 4 color process, the serial number of the machine was printed across the page in its microfinely goodness. I seem to recall a counterfeiter was caught from this method.
http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/14/1 742224
..where in the Constitution are the geographical descriptions of what constitute "free speech zones" like "law" enforcement uses today. I seem to have missed that clause. I was under the obviously erroneous opinion that the "free speech" zone was the area inside the borders of the USA, but according to the news, it's not, it's wherever millionaires who give orders to mercenaries say these zones are, other places, they are not.
That's one example, there are many more out there.
Todays "law enforcement" is lowercase l in the "law" part (that is the nice theory part) and capital E in the "Enforcement" part, which is the stark reality of the situation..
We have elite status quo maintainers, we haven't had "law enforcement" for many moons now.
..by giving out loans from peoples accounts based on the assumption that people wont frenzy to cash out their savings account.
--- widget evolution: enhanced, plus, super, ultra, extreme, exxxtreme, ultra-extreme,
and throw out the original
techniques apply to digital cameras too? run them thru an image resampler, and delete the original
Well, the article only talks about laser printers because of the banding, which changes when you replace the toner cartridge.
The problem is this is such:
Seriously, detection is a great idea, as is imprintation. However, to imprint and read properly, you need a known quantity you can control. What this will spawn, if it hasn't already in the organized crime world, is customization of printers.
The other option is to print the print with two or more printers with more than one pass. Ie, print one layer/pass with one printer of one brand, then another pass with another printer. You now have a hybrid print with different banding patterns, etc.
Kinda like mixing paints to get that special custom color.
Seriously, it is probably easier to tag the paint with serialized molecule particles in the ink and papers. That is harder to change.
Would probably cost less to produce as well. Just use some material which resonants when exposed to a particular EM frequency so that the detection can be done without touching the paper or ink. Just wave a sensor over the print and you can check to see how much of a reaction.
Would be better than messing with aspects of the prints which the users can easily change.
Winged Power Photography
Buy 2 printers. Feed the paper through the 2nd printer and re-print the same pattern over the first one.
Bad news: you lose resolution as a fucntion of how badly the new printing if registered with the previous copy.
Good news: the "signature" is replaced by the product of the two original printers, which is probably no longer identifiable.
BTW, encoding a special code (glyph) in the printout was patented ages ago by Xerox, but it isn't used and it isn't really microscopic and it's easy to defeat and it's only suitable for certain types of image. There are probably other methods, but nothing too magical.
So my enemies just need to just get a test print from my printer, hack my serial number into a printer of the same model, and start sending out threatening letters to senators?
Since variations, whether inherent irregularities or intentional watermarks, must be relative changes in colour or intensity if they are to be unnoticeable to the naked eye, they can be compensated for.
Take your first printed output, compare to original, and alter colour/intensity before reprinting. The same algorithms used to detect printer differences could be used to generate the delta for feedback.
If the 'signature' is a dot at the extreme bottom-left being one shade redder than original, send something with that dot one shade less red. When the printer reddens it one shade, you match the original.
1. Print
2. Compare and Reprint
3. Profit!!
Whoops, forgot that step 2 is supposed to be ???
Actually, there was some controversy because one of the bills displays the Canadian RED ENSIGN, which is different from the Canadian FLAG.
There's a very informative page on the subject here
So effectively, many color printers are embedding their serial number in output documents.
So, who cares? When I buy my MegaCorp WhizBang640K printer from CompUSA (and don't buy the extended warranty), who looks at the serial number?
If I use it for some nefarious purpose, I suppose the Homeland Security Department (the same group of really on top of it folks that let my girlfriend through TWO airports with a loaded rescue flare in her back pack, bright orange and clearly labeled WILDERNESS FLARE, but I digress...) could figure out which CompUSA store I bought it from (maybe, if someone tracks the serial numbers).
Then what - try to subpeona everybody that purchased a similar printer from the store? Well, have fun guys. Maybe they should beef up their airport "security" teams a bit first.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Hell, if you just printed out a pile of $23 dollar bills, just buy a new one and trash the old one. And they're not going to use it for home correspondance.
However, it *is* useful. If they get busted, the Feds can use such features to demonstrate that the notes probably came from the printer they found on premises.
Interestingly, ever since the 1980's I have *never* used my own printers for anonymous correspondance for exactly this reason. I thought it was an obvious thing to look for.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Seems like the buzzword these days are detection for no other reason than funding.
Yes it is obvious that highly criminal people and terrorists are sooo stupid they can't even fly a plane.
But in the real world...
Inkjet heads clog up and alters the way the ink is sprayed on to the paper, and laser printers use recycled cartridges. Doesn't take a genious to alter the raster pattern by using another rip - like ghostscript...
This looks like another face recognition blob. Much hype and not much reality.
I find it interesting that this research is just coming to fruition around the same time that Check 21 is being passed in to law. Coincidence? I think not.
What do you get when you cross a mountain-climber with a mosquito? Nothing! You can't cross a scaler with a vector.
There goes printing out goatse pictures and placing it on people's windshields.
So the way I read it, they're going to try to selectively ADD banding to the printed output, undoing the progress that engineers have worked so hard to achieve?
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
Speaking of making up shit, hows the search for WMDs goin nowadays?
It's slow go, what with all the mass graves they keep having to go through.
Lately democracy seems to be based on the skybox, the Happy Meal box, the X-box, and the idiot box.
If you have ever serviced a laser printer, you would know that the Fuser Assebly, the drum that melts the toner on the paper, gets pitted and scared during use. No fuser is perfect. Each leaves a small mark or blemish on the paper with each roll.
It seems to me this would be like id'ing a tiretrack. Look for the scars/imperfections and match it to a fuser.
Inkjets are much harder to id. Since the printing comes from the Print head, and it only drops ink, your best bet is to match a dirt print head or dirty roller.
just my $.02.
C.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
Isn't he the one that's always the first of the away team to get killed?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
A few chemical shells, some equipment, maybe. Not enough for justifying the invasion. Not in the amounts you're talking about.
The Syrians won't let us in and look for the rest.