Possible to secure airport printer?

[Vidiot62]

I have an old HP 1012 connected to my Airport Extreme, and it just printed out a QR code. When I scanned it I got a page telling me I had been hit by the printer troll and that my printer is accessible world-wide. I am not the only victim, as there are already a few other pictures of it floating around the internet (one example: http://imgur.com/a/gTcea).

So my question is: is there a way to secure the printer so it can only be used by devices on the local network? And more importantly: is my airport attached external hard drive accessible world-wide also? I think the printer prank is funny and clever but I really don't want anyone to have access to my time machine back-ups (there is a password on the drive but I'm not sure how secure that is). Thanks!

 

[doggson]

I have an old HP 1012 connected to my Airport Extreme, and it just printed out a QR code. When I scanned it I got a page telling me I had been hit by the printer troll and that my printer is accessible world-wide. I am not the only victim, as there are already a few other pictures of it floating around the internet (one example: http://imgur.com/a/gTcea).

So my question is: is there a way to secure the printer so it can only be used by devices on the local network? And more importantly: is my airport attached external hard drive accessible world-wide also? I think the printer prank is funny and clever but I really don't want anyone to have access to my time machine back-ups (there is a password on the drive but I'm not sure how secure that is). Thanks!

Hi!
I got the exact same QR-code today om my HP Printer 1022. I scanned the QR-code with my mobile phone wich took me to the same web page (and the same IP adress). First of all, is the landing web page of any threat to my mobile phone when i scann the QR-code?(contacts and other private information)?!

Secondly, what is the purpose with the trolling and the possibility to write him/her a question?

 

[opinio]

I am wondering if a website you visited is launching a print command behind the scenes so it looks like you have a printer issue which then prompts you to scan the code? In other words you just visited a malicious website that ran the command.

For what reason?

Who knows.

Just a thought.

 

[mattstrange]

For what reason?

I looked at the code on that page. It seems to be harmless enough; no dodgy javascripts or anything suspicious, except...

The only interesting thing is that it also includes piwik analytics (piwik.org). Maybe they are mapping these "public" printers for future delivery of advertising. (The days of force feeding ads via fax machines are nearly over.)

 

[Vidiot62]

I am wondering if a website you visited is launching a print command behind the scenes so it looks like you have a printer issue which then prompts you to scan the code? In other words you just visited a malicious website that ran the command.

For what reason?

Who knows.

Just a thought.

No one in my house was on a computer at the time, and my printer does not support airprint so it wasn't from an iOS device, so unless there's a way to cache it in the airport extreme I don't think this is the case.

 

[opinio]

No one in my house was on a computer at the time, and my printer does not support airprint so it wasn't from an iOS device, so unless there's a way to cache it in the airport extreme I don't think this is the case.

Yep... rules my theory out.