Printer memory

[susieq]

Don't know if this is generally known (well, I didn't know it), but printers have memory (well, I did know that) that can store your personal details - passwords, bank and credit card details, in much the same way as the hard drive of a computer. So passing on your old printer via freecycle or taking it down to your recycling centre, or the charity shop, may not be such a good idea after all. So next time I dispose of a printer, I'll definitely be removing the memory chip and distroying it.

Susie

[Patstone]

Do you mean that if you print a document it can remember whats on it, cos if you do thats scary.

[susieq]

I'm not sure exactly how it works - just that I was warned that it's possible to retrieve data from old printers and I should always remove any memory chips before disposing of one.

[ps_bond]

Many of the more expensive printers have significant amounts of memory, but the cheaper ones (domestic inkjets, cheap laser printers et al) have little to none. I've not seen any exploits that directly attack that; if it's volatile memory (DRAM usually) rather than static memory (er... Battery-backed DRAM, flash, hard drives) then there is the theoretical possibility of them retaining documents. Whether it would be cost effective to attack them is another issue.

If people are interested in the area, then http://www.schneier.com is worth reading from time to time; he discusses various security-related stories as they hit the news. On Friday he likes to post something about squid.