Printer Hacked: PewDiePie is in trouble and he needs your help to defeat T-Series!

It has come to our attention today that printers with port 9100 open to the internet are currently being exposed.

We’ve seen reports on Twitter that in the last 24 hours people’s printers are being exploited.

Please see attached message:

——-############ ATTENTION!  ############————–

PewDiePie is in trouble and he needs your help to defeat T-Series!

— WHAT IS GOING ON —

PewDiePie, the currently most subscribed to channel on YouTube, is at stake of losing his position as the number one position by an Indian company called T-Series, that simply uploads videos of Bollywood trailers and songs.

— WHAT TO DO —

1. Unsubscribe from T-Series
2. Subscribe to PewDiePie
3. Share awareness to this issue #SavePewDiePie
4. Tell everyone you know. Seriously.
5. BROFIST!

                        _    ,-,    _
                 ,--, /: :\/': :`\/: :\
                |`;  ' `,'   `.;    `: |
                |    |     |  '  |     |.
                | :  |     |     |     ||
                | :. |  :  |  :  |  :  | \
                 \__/: :.. : :.. | :.. |  )
                      `---',\___/,\___/ /'
                           `==._ .. . /'
                                `-::-'

— EXTRA POINTS —

1. Subscribe to Dolan Dark
2. Subscribe to grandayy
3. Hit that dab like Wiz Khalifa
4. Delete TikTok
5. Smile, the world is a great place.
6. Nevermind it’s 2018 and we’re all gonna die

PROTIP: Your printer is exposed to the internet.

— Please fix that. —

~Greetings from a friendly Giraffe

This type of printer hack previously happened before when someone decided to print to thousands of printers worldwide!!

If you want to read more about the previous printer hack click here.

Any printers that are open to the internet are vulnerable to outsiders and affects all brands of printers:

• HP
• Samsung
• Epson
• Canon
• Brother
• Afico
• Konica Minolta
• Oki

Our recommendation is for you to log into your router and to close any open ports you have that are being redirected to your printer.

So how did this happen to me?

The security between you and the public internet is controlled by your router firewall. This box protects your devices at home from being accessed from someone outside your network without your permission. Sometimes these ports are opened for gaming, remote working and even remote printing (this might be you). Printers are generally the most insecure device in your home. Once someone has access they can print whatever they like without the need of a password. It’s likely you or someone in IT has opened this port for remote printing or in extreme cases your router has a known exploit and has been compromised leaving the door open for attacks like this!

What next.. Close port 9100, 361, 515, 8080, 80 and 443 if open

1. Visit your router/firewall webpage normally http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.1.254 *if you can’t find this open command prompt and type ifconfig then enter. Use the default gateway address to get into the control panel.
2. Login to the router
3. Find an area of the router called one of the following: NAT / Network Address Translation / Open ports / Port forwarding
4. Delete/disable the rule that points to your printer *if it’s not there proceed to the next step
5. Find an area of the router called: DMZ and ensure this isn’t pointing to your printer either.

Can’t see the port forward or DMZ rule.. Your router might be compromised and have open ports without you knowing.

If your router is more than 1 year old, never been updated or has a known exploit it might be safer to simply replace your router if you can’t see the rules in there. If this is the case we’ve linked the firewall router we recommend to our clients, this works with ADSL, VDSL and ethernet fibre.

Our recommendation if you’re concerned and haven’t made any ports open would be to replace your router. This is our recommended security firewall router which works with ADSL VDSL and cable connections.

Want to read more about printer security? Check our blog on how to improve your printer security