Following a Twitter user’s well-publicised hacking of 50,000 printers to promote a YouTuber’s channel, a new online service has been launched, offering the same kind of hacking function.
As ZDNet reports, this new service – dubbed “Printer Advertising” – claims to be able to hack printers “all over the world to print out messages on demand”, just as in the YouTuber promotional hack which took place over the weekend.
“We have the ability to reach every single printer in the world,” claims a website offering the service, which was launched on Sunday. “Reservations are limited.” The service promoted itself via flyers sent out to people’s printers, offering a taster of the kind of campaign it provides.
The spam campaign originates from an IP address “known for generating quite a good amount of bad traffic”.
The person responsible for launching Printer Advertising has revealed that they have already had “a few potential clients reach out”, noting that the YouTuber hack campaign motivated the launch of the service.
They declined to answer any queries regarding the legality of what they are offering, but such a service “could be abused to push all sorts of illegal services, such as drugs or crime-for-hire services, or to push political influence campaigns”. It could even be used to “incite physical violence against certain communities”.
