Crime & Safety
ICYMI: Printer at Arlington Home Falls Victim to Widespread Anti-Semitic Hack
Police are offering tips to residents to help them avoid similar printer hacks.
Editor's Note: This story was originally posted earlier this week. Here it is again in case you missed it.
ARLINGTON, MA — A printer at a private home in Arlington was hacked to produce an unsolicited racist and anti-Semitic flyer as part of a widespread network printer hack, according to a joint statement from the Arlington Police Department (APD) and the Arlington Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
According to the statement, police responded to a call from a private home in Arlington where an older model HP printer produced a flyer from "samiz.dat" entitled "Why am I Getting a Bowlcut," which police say advocates violence against non-whites.
Find out what's happening in Arlingtonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Police added that the incident appeared to be a part of a widespread printer hack by known hacker Andrew Auernheimer, otherwise known as "Weev," who explained via Twitter that he had exploited networked printers earlier this month.
"Printing round 2: why I am getting a bowlcut." -- in which I ship the first issue of samiz.dat! https://t.co/XhvefhX5Jn
— Andrew Auernheimer ⚡ (@rabite) August 2, 2016
According to a report by the Washington Times, Aurnheimer was behind a hack in March that printed fliers at Northeastern University, UMass Amherst, Smith College, Mt. Holyoke College, the University of California at Berkley and Depaulia.
Find out what's happening in Arlingtonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Both the Washington Times report and the joint statement said the previous hack used printers' unsecured 9100 ports. The statement from the APD and the AHRC indicated the hack does not seem to have targeted the individual who reported it or the Arlington area in particular.
Additionally, the statement offered tips to residents in order to help prevent similar hacks to their printers.
- Keep your computer and printer software up to date by installing security updates regularly.
- Turn off anything you don’t need.
- Turn the power off on your printer when you’re not using it.
- Don’t connect your computer to a network if you don’t need to. Instead, directly plug your printer into your computer (usually by using a USB cable).
- If you do connect your printer to a network, make sure you use passwords wherever you can. And change any default passwords to a more secure password of your choosing.
- Read your printer manual and turn off any printing methods you don’t need. For example, if you have an HP printer, you can disable printing port 9100, which has been used by hackers in the past.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
