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Twitter Printer Social Networks Youtube

Twitter User Hacks 50,000 Printers To Tell People To Subscribe To a YouTube Channel (zdnet.com) 94

Posted by msmash from the stranger-things dept.
An anonymous reader writes: A Twitter user using the pseudonym of @TheHackerGiraffe has hacked over 50,000 printers to print out flyers telling people to subscribe to PewDiePie's YouTube channel. The message the printers received was a simple one. It urged people to subscribe to PewDiePie's YouTube channel in order for PewDiePie -- a famous YouTuber from Sweden, real name Felix Kjellberg -- to keep the crown of most subscribed to YouTube channel.

If this sounds ...odd... it's because over the past month, an Indian record label called T-Series has caught up andsurpassed PewDiePie, once considered untouchable in terms of YouTube followers. The Swedish Youtube star made a comeback after his fans banded together in various social media campaigns, but T-Series is catching up with PewDiePie again.
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Twitter User Hacks 50,000 Printers To Tell People To Subscribe To a YouTube Channel More

Twitter User Hacks 50,000 Printers To Tell People To Subscribe To a YouTube Channel

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  • Printers today, IoT tomorrow (Score:5, Insightful)

    by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Sunday December 02, 2018 @06:31PM (#57738106)

    Can't "wait" for the inevitable day when Internet of Things devices get mass hacked. Can we start calling them: Insecure of Things or "Insecure on 'Tubes" instead ? :/

    • Can't "wait" for the inevitable day when Internet of Things devices get mass hacked.

      You don't read the news much, do you?

    • Re:Printers today, IoT tomorrow (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Sunday December 02, 2018 @08:19PM (#57738444)

      Can't "wait" for the inevitable day when Internet of Things devices get mass hacked.

      It's already happened many times over.

      Can we start calling them: Insecure of Things or "Insecure on 'Tubes" instead ? :/

      Get with it, grandpa! It's called the Internet of Shit [youtube.com]. ;)

    • Can't "wait" for the inevitable day when Internet of Things devices get mass hacked.

      That day is here [wikipedia.org]. Mostly they are used in botnets, fwiw.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Add this to the list (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    of things I care nothing about

  • Wow (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I weep for humanity.

  • People should drop the delusion that they're not easily controllable. The fact that it worked shows most people will just follow orders.

  • So, what are you in for? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    > I hacked printers to pimp a Youtube channel.

    If that doesn't make you someone's bitch I don't know what will.

  • Like the good old days (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Sunday December 02, 2018 @06:50PM (#57738176)
    Kind of like the good old days when you come into work and find a pile of FAX paper on the floor. Grrrrrr!

  • Some "hack" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Sunday December 02, 2018 @07:04PM (#57738200) Homepage

    The only condition was that the printer was connected to the Internet, used old firmware, and had "printing" ports left exposed online.

    The hack relies on using automated scripts to send print messages to printers that have IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) ports, LPD (Line Printer Daemon) ports, and port 9100 left open over the Internet.

    So in other words... he printed to printers.

    • Re:Some "hack" (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02, 2018 @08:57PM (#57738538)

      Considering how many of the people in my office can't print to the printer that's been specifically set up for them, it probably sounds like arcane wizardry to most people.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I can usually find the right printer, but getting the printout right the first time is pretty hit and miss. You have a 50/50 chance with portrait A4 document, but anything else will probably need several attempts to get the right paper size, orientation, scaling, page selection and collation.

    • It's amazing this stuff makes slashdot, especially in it's 'unfiltered' form. TFS is awful, exactly as you point out. The further 'enragement' is that the hacker used Twitter. Shocking indeed. If we ever find out he used blockchain, we could see a financial meltdown to rival the time when some coins fell through a hole in my pocket.

    • The only condition was that the printer was connected to the Internet, used old firmware, and had "printing" ports left exposed online.

      So in other words... he printed to printers.

      Not just that, but the firmware doesn't even have to be old. There's newer printers with LPD support. Naturally, you should disable it.

      • The only condition was that the printer was connected to the Internet, used old firmware, and had "printing" ports left exposed online.

        So in other words... he printed to printers.

        Not just that, but the firmware doesn't even have to be old. There's newer printers with LPD support. Naturally, you should disable it.

        That doesn't follow. LPD is a perfectly cromulent printing protocol. What you should do is the same as for all other services on your LAN -- firewall them off from the outside world.

        • Well, please let me rephrase that. If you're not using it, you should disable it. What if someone/thing gets loose inside your network?

  • Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by quonset ( 4839537 )

    Who or what is a PewDiePie and why should I care? Never heard of him/it so it can't be important.

  • No one knows or cares who/what "T-series" is. Stop posting this crap.
  • How is the number of subscribers one has on YouTube even a thing that people care about? Isn't there something even slightly more important they could be pursuing?

    I'm baffled.

    • How is the number of subscribers one has on YouTube even a thing that people care about?

      Everything that's popular/trending on YouTube is utter tripe. The only things worth watching on there are from the handful of content creators who don't give a shit about regularly spewing out clickbait garbage just to keep their rankings up.

    • How is the number of subscribers one has on YouTube even a thing that people care about?

      You need at least a minimum number of subscribers to be eligible to put ads on your videos. The more subscribers, in theory, the more ad revenue you can earn.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      How is the number of subscribers one has on YouTube even a thing that people care about? Isn't there something even slightly more important they could be pursuing?

      Easy, more subscribers, more money. PewDiePie, former #1 on YouTube probably easily pulled in a few hundred thousand every month in YouTube money.

      If you've got a silver play button (100K subs) you generally can pull in a couple grand a month, not quite enough to live on, so you either have to supplement with a regular job or a Patreon account.

  • Been there, done that (Score:5, Funny)

    by spaceyhackerlady ( 462530 ) on Sunday December 02, 2018 @11:59PM (#57738934)

    Some years ago I quietly programmed one of our office printers to display INSERT COIN when it was idle. This confused one of our summer students, but they all tended to be easily confused. It also caused some consternation when my former boss noticed and asked our sysadmin for an explanation.

    ...laura

  • can PewDiePie handle prison / jail or will buy his way out? or the very least fight fight extradition??
    https://mic.com/articles/10913... [mic.com]

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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