Skillbox, an organization based in Russia, has proudly claimed to have sent a spam message to 600,000 printers that were left open to the internet. This message invited recipients to attend their training courses and retrain into a profession that is unlikely to be replaced by algorithmic processes in the future.

According to Skillbox, they conducted this hack by creating a bot that uses the IoT (Internet of Things) search engine ‘Shodan’ to exploit insecure printers and access their open 9100 port to print the message. At present there has been no evidence to suggest that any printers have been hacked. Could this be just a ruse to gain media coverage?

There have been a number of print-related hacks hitting the headlines of late – a clear warning to users of their print vulnerabilities, but is anyone listening? The most recent publicised print hack was by ‘The Hacker Giraffe’, who promoted PewDiePie in their efforts. This affected 48,000 printers the first time and 100,000 printers the second. Considering there were two hacks, with the first receiving a lot of media attention, it is clear that more needs to be done to educate individuals as well as organizations not only on the importance of protecting their print infrastructure, but also how to achieve this.

To help inform your prospects and customers of this potential threat, provide them with this useful downloadable guide to help protect their print environment from malicious attacks.


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SOURCE Ringdale

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