Cheap Scanners Can "Fingerprint" Paper

Posted by timothy on Tuesday March 10, 2009 @04:10AM from the to-go-with-the-mandated-yellow-dots dept.

carusoj writes "Researchers at Princeton University and University College London say they can identify unique information, essentially like a fingerprint, from any blank sheet of paper using any reasonably good scanner. The technique could be used to crack down on counterfeiting or even keep track of confidential documents. The researchers' paper on the finding is set to be presented at an IEEE security conference in Oakland, Calif., in May." Update: 03/10 22:43 GMT by T : J. Alex Halderman, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan and one of the authors of the study, writes with more: "My group has just put up a site about the work and a copy of the full paper, and we will probably add a video later tonight."

1 of 88 comments (clear)

Re:I always wonder by kannibal_klown · 2009-03-10 04:43 · Score: 0, Troll

There was at least 1 episode a few years back on Law and Order... my guess is either SVU or CI.
In any case, they traced the paper down to the office it was printed on because of marks left by the printer by testing all of the printers within a certain building that employed a number of "persons of interest."
I don't recall if that episode focused on the spots left on purpose, or if it was dirty roller in the printer. But there may have been more episodes that focused on either that I didn't see.