Analysis: Printing's secret service

By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 28 Nov 2005 at 12:01

'People are taking data security more seriously, tracking emails and monitoring Net use, but it's very difficult to keep an eye on who's printing out what. Some companies use swipe cards to keep track of printer use, but that's with the employee's knowledge, so anyone with an axe to grind would know not to use the printer.'

The underlying technology is more than 20 years old and was initially implemented because companies risked being banned from selling colour printers in some countries, where banking officials feared the machines would be used for counterfeiting.

The dot-recognition process was designed for large corporate machines and isn't used - as far as anyone knows - in home printers, although as prices tumble, high-end lasers are certain to play an increasing role in the home office.

For the home printer market, anti-counterfeiting officials rely on more open methods that restrict what certain software will reproduce. The Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group and its global partners have pushed a counterfeit deterrence system (CDS).

'The CDS has been voluntarily adopted by several hardware and software manufacturers, and prevents personal computers and digital imaging tools from capturing or reproducing the image of a protected banknote,' the group says.

Adobe is one firm that has signed up to this technology. 'Photoshop includes a CDS that prevents it from being used to illegally duplicate banknotes,' the company says. 'As implemented, CDS prevents users from opening detailed images of banknotes within Photoshop.'

The irony of all this, of course, is that by now any forger worth his salt will know which printers and software packages employ snooping technology, so the latest Big Brotherism is only likely to snare whistle-blowers, industrial spies and archivists.