Secret codes in Xerox printers deciphered

Secret codes in Xerox printers deciphered

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) came out with an astonishing disclosure this week regarding the presence of secret codes in Xerox DocuColor printers. Through these ciphers, it is possible to trace essential details like the serial number of the printer as well as the exact date and time when the print was taken.

EFF researchers gathered pages from various copy centres in California this summer and after viewing them under blue light, the tiny symbols were decoded within a week.

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Present in the form of little yellow dots, these codes are less than one millimeter in size and can be detected only under blue light using either a magnifying glass or microscope.

EFF Staff Technologist Seth David Schoen reveals that they have been able to unravel the mystery of the code perfectly as they could comprehend what the symbols meant.

Also, since the tiny dots appear on all types of operating systems used, Schoen concludes it's the hardware which is responsible for the coding feature.

A San Francisco-based privacy organisation, the EFF said that the codes were found on each and every piece of printed paper of the machine.

Although all the major printers (Kyocera, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, Konica, Ricoh, Toshiba and Xerox) are embedded with the secretly coded mechanism, the EFF specified that only the ciphers on Xerox machines have been cracked so far.

However, Schoen was reasonably sure that the yellow dots on other printers too are similar data tracing integrations.

EFF found that even those printers which did not generate yellow dots came under suspicion as they emit some watermarks, which also may turn out to be a data tracking feature.

As of now, only the US Secret Service and now EFF have the ability to decode the secret mechanism on printers.

While the secret coding is supposed to be used by the Secret Service only for preventing counterfeiting, the EFF has serious apprehensions as there is no enforceable law to stop misuse of such crucial information.

Lee Tien, Senior Staff Attorney of EFF states that this secret coding technology makes it a lot simpler for the administration to trace out people than ever before.

Using this example, Tien stressed on how the governments and privately run organizations formulate secret ideas to take away all the privacy a general man ought to have.

The research results were published in a Dot Decoding Guide on EFF's website.