4 ms·

I hope the author ran this by their legal team first.

• Pick-A-Hill2019 6y ago
  That was my exact initial reaction (which is why I posted it). Actually my initial reaction was 'WTF???' and so I made sure to read right to the end just in case I misunderstood and yep - they did in fact print off pdf files to random printers. Thought the HN crowd would love diving in to the rights and wrongs of it. It reminded me of the 'old days' of fax spamming via uhmmm '2600' approved means and methods. With that said - Would I rather read some pages printed off for 'some weird reason' (and got p*offed at the waste of paper etc) vs. inadvertantly becoming part of a possible future bot-net? I mean - How do you alert the owner of a 'Write Only' (pun intended) device? And also hopefully at the same time kick up enough of 'Facebook/Twitter/XYZ' storm that Joe/Sue Q. Public notices? That's a tough one.
  • floatingatoll 6y ago
    Are you legally liable for botnet damage done to others if your unsecured printer is made to join that botnet by an unauthorized third party? Does the answer change if you were notified of a misconfiguration that could allow this?
    • shakna 6y ago
      > Are you legally liable for botnet damage done to others if your unsecured printer is made to join that botnet by an unauthorized third party? Depending on jurisdiction, sometimes. > Does the answer change if you were notified of a misconfiguration that could allow this? Depending on jurisdiction, often. Not quite always, as it may fall back on the manufacturer for not releasing a "reasonable" way to secure the machine without loss of function. But generally speaking, if you have been notified, you're on the hook.