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New Technique Could Trace Documents By Printer

Posted by timothy on from the better-than-a-notch-in-the-e dept.

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.

19 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. Big Brother knows.... by FortKnox · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!!!

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    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
    1. Re:Big Brother knows.... by TarlCabbot · · Score: 1, Funny

      The biggest thing I have to worry about is if they can trace that pictue of someones ass from the copier to me.

  2. Obviously by Donoho · · Score: 5, Funny

    They got the memo about cover letters on their TPS Reports.

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    Michalangelo Progr
  3. Hence the chisel and tablet by FerretFrottage · · Score: 5, Funny

    ....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."
  4. Great! by User+956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then maybe they can finally track those unverifiable CBS documents back to Karl Rove.

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    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Results: They arrived via mixmaster email and were printed on the printer next door.

  5. Reminiscing by gregarican · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Reminiscing by Keebler71 · · Score: 2, Funny

      All the more weird given speculation that the actress who played Alice is gay.

      --
      "It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
  6. and they called me paranoid by ralphus · · Score: 3, Funny

    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. :)

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    Revolutions are never about freedom or justice. They're about who's going to be top dog. -- Kilgore Trout
  7. CSI??? by Fouquet · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh come on. They could do this on CSI a couple of years ago. What's taken 'real' law enforcement so long????

  8. Re:Tracking Printer Heads and Toner Drums by shigelojoe · · Score: 2, Funny

    Arrest 'em all and let the courts sort 'em out.

    Wait, this isn't the RIAA article...

  9. *NEW* Technique!? Nothing *NEW* about this by funkdid · · Score: 2, Funny
    Law enforcement has been able to do this since at least 1994. Anyone ever watch any of the crime shows, or perhaps know someone who does forensic IT stuff, or perhaps is familiar with how printers work.

    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!!!!

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    I boycott signatures

  10. Another thing to hoard by swb · · Score: 2, Funny

    Crap, yet another DRM-less/security-less gizmo I gotta hoard for when they're all wired into Ashcroft's penal colony.

  11. A little flaw with that plan by way2trivial · · Score: 2, Funny

    You think your inkjet will last six months?

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    every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
  12. You mean "on-topic" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    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.

  13. Re:Please repeat after me... by micromoog · · Score: 3, Funny

    And if you prefer to read that information in hard copy, you can alw . . . oh, fuck it.

  14. Re:Big Brother knows....SMS by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 3, Funny
    Most of the /. population won't be able to pass notes to girls without them finding out who its from!!!

    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."
  15. toner refills by morcheeba · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.

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    HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
  16. Re:The old USSR days by nsushkin · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, in the '70s, USSR etched both photocopiers...