Businesses Not Taking Hacking Attacks On Printers Seriously

Businesses making use of printer ink devices are putting themselves at risk by not taking hacking attacks seriously, according to a new study.

Research which is set to be published by a Finnish security company is expected to show that such machines are vulnerable to an attack by malicious parties.

The Guardian reported that professor Salvatore Stolfo and researcher Ang Cui from Columbia University's Intrusion Detection System Laboratory have carried out tests to infect a printer with malware via its remote firmware upgrade.

As a result of this, HP made more than 50 changes to its update.

However, the pair has now carried out further research, which is yet to be published, into embedded system insecurity and symbiote technology that shows that the message has yet to sink in, according to the news source.

Last month, thousands of office-based printers were hit by malware which led to them churning our page after page of rubbish, wasting costly paper and ink supplies.

Posted by Barry Ashmore.