Cybernews, a security news website, announced today that it has "hacked" approximately 28,000 printers worldwide in a stunt to "raise awareness of printer security issues"

This is a big deal, since many owners and administrators of networked printers do not properly secure their printers However, the CyberNews "hack" was not really a hack On the contrary, CyberNews used common print commands to print documents to the remote printer, just as the printer was designed to do

This was possible because these networked printers were set up to receive print jobs over the Internet without any authorization So CyberNews ordered the printers to print a five-page document instructing printer owners and operators on the basics of printer security

If this sounds familiar, that's because the same thing has been done before: in 2016, notorious internet troll Andrew Auernheimer, aka "Weave," had 20,000 printers (his number) print a one-page racist He used a similar method to make them spit out a manifesto

In 2017, a pseudonymous hacker called "Stackoverflowin" did the same thing, but instead of a racist screed, he simply sent a simple message to close open Internet ports

Like Cybernews and Stackoverflowin, Auernheimer scanned the Internet for printers that were open to the Internet and receiving remote commands However, he told Vice Motherboard that he "did not hack the printers," but instead "sent a message, which was that the printers were not hacked

Now, despite the warnings in the Cybernews blog post, just because a printer can receive print jobs via the Internet does not mean it can be hacked completely However, exposing the printer to the Internet does make it easier

To prevent the printer from being accessible online, tweak the firewall settings on your home (or office) router to block port 9100, the port most commonly used for Internet printing If the printer's management interface has a similar setting, block the port there as well

Cybernews has two more tips to protect your printer from prowlers, whether or not it is connected to the Internet

First, make sure your printer has the latest firmware You may have to scour the manufacturer's website to find new updates Next, see if you can change the default admin password for the router