Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/17/analog-privacy-leak-discarded.html
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Is this really a revelation? When used for processing secret data the cartridges should always be discarded in classified waste bins.
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Sometimes I think we confuse “data leak” with “valuable data leak”.
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As a millennial, I’m not really into labels…
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O crap! They might learn the secret of
A-B / C / D-F / G-I / J-L / …
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And you get the same “problem” with the film ribbons (as opposed to the ink on fabric ribbons) used for typing crisp, beautiful letters on electric typewriters and daisy wheel printers.
Either you don’t have enemies who are going to bother going through your trash and unspooling your used ribbons to find out what you’ve been committing to sticky labels/paper… or you do have enemies like that, in which case destroying your used ribbon cartridges is really quite far down on your list of worries.
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…in which case why are you using a typewriter? This new e-mail leaves nary a physical trace!
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B-but her typewriter ribbons!
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I’m making a lot of jokes but actually it’s kind of a cool concept–more for an artist than a burgeoning CIA operative, though. I’d love to see someone collect a bunch of spent label marker cartridges and transcribe them verbatim, spaces and all.
The NSA cannot eavesdrop on your analogue records without physically searching the place where they are stored.
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About 10 years ago, I was working for a company providing highly secure communications hardware to various shady rich customers.
Operations would configure the hardware with freshly generated random initial keys, and then use such a printer to put the key on a sticker inside the box.
Oh boy, they were pissed when I told them.
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Columbo, season 5, episode 5: Now you see him (1976)
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Shit, and I was all impressed with myself that I just went through all my unorganized “people to kill” folders and labelled them all. And I was about to head to the victories thread…hold on there’s someone at the door.
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I tried that. Now the shredder is unhappy and so is the office administrator.
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I usually break open my used-up Brother cartridges; the cog-thingies the tape runs along on are quite useful here and there in the DIY department. For instance as non-conducting spacers between circuit boards, stuff like that.
The tape itself goes in the burn bag, of course.
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I may be mis-remembering, but doesn’t the Dymo tape also have a paper backing which gets imprinted too?
Seems to be the same problem.
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That’s why I use crayons and Big Chief Tablet paper.
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On the scale of enemies to worry about, the NSA, CIA, Mossad, MI6, etc, etc, all rate somewhere between four and seven on a scale of one to ten. Having Detective Columbo on your case? That’s an eleven. It doesn’t matter if you destroy the printer ribbon, communicate only via end to end encryption and secure delete all your correspondence immediately after reading it, he’s gonna discover all your secrets and you will land in the clink within 90 minutes.
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