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Laser printer secret codes cracked

By Derek Sooman

On October 20, 2005, 6:00 PM

Seemingly, when colour laser printers print pages, they may include tiny dots, almost invisible to the naked eye, which can be used by the US Secret Service to track down counterfeiters. It has emerged that this code has been cracked.

"We've found that the dots from at least one line of printers encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the serial number of the printer," said EFF Staff Technologist Seth David Schoen.

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  1. October 25, 2005 6:42 AM
    microbot said:
    I work quite extensively with HP and Xerox colour laser printers. I would be interested to know how this coding is done, and how it has been cracked.I am posting this from the U.K. I was wondering if this system is a global issue or just limited to the U.S. / Canada.
    Reply
  2. October 25, 2005 7:09 AM
    microbot said:
    I work quite extensively with HP and Xerox colour laser printers. I would be interested to know how this coding is done, and how it has been cracked.I am posting this from the U.K. I was wondering if this system is a global issue or just limited to the U.S. / Canada.
    Reply
  3. October 25, 2005 7:13 AM
    microbot said:
    Posted a second time in error.Apologies.
    Reply

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