this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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HP CEO Says They Brick Printers That Use Third-Party Ink Because of … Hackers::The company says it wants to protect you from “viruses.” Experts are skeptical.

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[–] RememberTheApollo@lemmy.world 68 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Amazing how completely absurd things like this come out of their mouths and they expect people to believe it. Insulting is what it is. We’ve had an HP AIO printer for a decade + that is “bricked” because of their stupid DRM. I can’t even use the scanner because we have non-HP ink. Never gonna buy another HP product.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 26 points 2 years ago

That's literally a crime. HP exceeded authorized access to your computer (specifically, the microcontroller in your printer) in order to damage it. I don't know if the criminal complaint should be directed to the FBI or the FTC, but either way, you should file one.

[–] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

You put the wrong thing in and they take away all functionality.

I, once again, am forced to ask...when do we start burning things?

[–] TotalFat@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

HP is responsible for PC LOAD LETTER.

Never forget..

[–] MondayToFriday@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago

What are you complaining about? Those were the glory days of HP.

[–] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS

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[–] CodeName 26 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What harm are they saying these "hackable" cartridges can even do? Brick the printers? So they are preemptively bricking the printers because... the hackers might... brick the printers? Makes sense! I expect better from corpo technobabble. This is just idiotic.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Site won't let me read the article, but if I remember correctly from another one of these threads, they're saying that a hacked cartridge could be used to load malware onto the computer itself. If true, the printer itself is hilariously insecure, as are the drivers they provide.

[–] CodeName 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Right? Instead of bricking the printer they can make their software secure. But we all know the reality is they want to punish anyone who dares to buy third party ink which is why they ignore vulnerabilities, and probably created them in the first place. Just a sad state of affairs. Part of me wants to believe consumers and even corporations will rebel against this obvious BS, but they'll probably make bank.

[–] magnus@lemmy.ahall.se 25 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What if they DIDN'T have a chip in the ink cartridge, and just used it as a container that could be refilled and used in every printer they made? No hacking the cartridge then.

No, that's crazy talk!

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

No but see then you could get hacked through...uh...nanobots in the ink! Yeah. Real problem, totally possible, definitely happens.

[–] Routhinator@startrek.website 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Meanwhile, here in reality land:

People are downgrading their firmware to ancient versions likely containing old CVEs because fuck HP and their printer cartridge mafia.

[–] sounddrill@linux.community 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Why does the ink cartridge need to be so smart that it has CVEs?

[–] Routhinator@startrek.website 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The printer firmware, not the cartridge.

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[–] turbowafflz@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago (2 children)

It's always so sad to see how far HP has fallen. They used to be such an innovative company and produce so many good products but then they decided to not anymore.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

I don’t know. They’ve been fucking up for a while now. At least back to the whole compaq mess.

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Their industrial 3D printers (multi jet fusion) revolutionized the market

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This makes me want to spread malware through HP printers

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 3 points 2 years ago

Careful or they'll hire you!

[–] valen@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

So the bricking is because there are chips in the ink cartridges. And why are there chips in the cartridges? Because HP wants to charge exorbitant rates for ink.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 14 points 2 years ago

"They're hacking our profits!" - HP CEO

[–] ZeroCool@slrpnk.net 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

HACK THE ~~PLANET~~ PRINTER INK CARTRIDGES!

[–] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Username checks out

[–] yol@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

Imagine if they put engineers time and money into developing faster, lighter, printers or faster, easier to use scanners or next generation OCR software or some sort of enterprise printing solution that doesn't make me want to throw up.

No. Physical DRM only.

Also, their laptops and business workstations have been quite bad in my experience.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 11 points 2 years ago

HP trying to pull a "Google" and say it's all for our own protection. :)

[–] ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

Oh. The ink is the issue. I see. My bad HP. I thought hackers hacked using software.

[–] INeedMana@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

I'm not big on gambling. But I feel I could bet that their software/firmware is so bad that someone could still hack the network via the bricked printer

[–] ManosTheHandsOfFate@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Oh (buy) Brother!

[–] grue@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

HP is doing what now?

Sounds to me like HP themselves are the hackers, exceeding authorized access in order to destroy people's property. Prosecute HP!

[–] wikibot@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Here's the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA) is a United States cybersecurity bill that was enacted in 1986 as an amendment to existing computer fraud law (18 U. S. C. § 1030), which had been included in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. Prior to computer-specific criminal laws, computer crimes were prosecuted as mail and wire fraud, but the applying law was often insufficient.

^to^ ^opt^ ^out^^,^ ^pm^ ^me^ ^'optout'.^ ^article^ ^|^ ^about^

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

There is nothing quite like a company praying on the ignorance of people who don't know that you can't get a virus on your devices by using 3rd party ink. The ink itself cannot do anything on its own to harm your PC, as far as I'm aware.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

more often than not, it's in the name of security

[–] Hotdogman@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Think of the kids... security.

[–] henfredemars 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] medicsofanarchy@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

the poor defenseless users, of course 🙏

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[–] wildcardology@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

What kind of "experts" are they? I don't know much about hacking but I call bullshit.

[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

"We bricked your printer to protect you."

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

If there are viruses that can infect a printer from a grey market ink cartridge, 9:1 HP released it into the wild, on purpose. They already know how to write viruses, all of their printing software qualifies.

[–] Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

You guys don't use the printers that allow you to pour liquid ink in the tanks?

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Wow, I really thought I broke the last printer I had at the office. Turns out it was HP. Too bad they replaced it with another HP.

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