Government Tracking You with Secret Code in Color Printers

The US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public.

A research team led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently broke the code behind tiny tracking dots that some color laser printers secretly hide in every document.

The U.S. Secret Service admitted that the tracking information is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers, ostensibly to identify counterfeiters. However, the nature of the private information encoded in each document was not previously known.

"We've found that the dots from at least one line of printers encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the serial number of the printer," said EFF Staff Technologist Seth David Schoen.

You can see the dots on color prints from machines made by Xerox, Canon, and other manufacturers (for a list of the printers we investigated so far, see: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/list.php). The dots are yellow, less than one millimeter in diameter, and are typically repeated over each page of a document. In order to see the pattern, you need a blue light, a magnifying glass, or a microscope (for instructions on how to see the dots, see: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/).

EFF and its partners began its project to break the printer code with the Xerox DocuColor line. Researchers Schoen, EFF intern Robert Lee, and volunteers Patrick Murphy and Joel Alwen compared dots from test pages sent in by EFF supporters, noting similarities and differences in their arrangement, and then found a simple way to read the pattern.

"So far, we've only broken the code for Xerox DocuColor printers," said Schoen. "But we believe that other models from other manufacturers include the same personally identifiable information in their tracking dots."

You can decode your own Xerox DocuColor prints using EFF's automated program at http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/index.php#program.

Xerox previously admitted that it provided these tracking dots to the government, but indicated that only the Secret Service had the ability to read the code. The Secret Service maintains that it only uses the information for criminal counterfeit investigations. However, there are no laws to prevent the government from abusing this information.

"Underground democracy movements that produce political or religious pamphlets and flyers, like the Russian samizdat of the 1980s, will always need the anonymity of simple paper documents, but this technology makes it easier for governments to find dissenters," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien. "Even worse, it shows how the government and private industry make backroom deals to weaken our privacy by compromising everyday equipment like printers. The logical next question is: what other deals have been or are being made to ensure that our technology rats on us?"

EFF is still working on cracking the codes from other printers and we need the public's help. Find out how you can make your own test pages to be included in our research at http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/wp.php#testsheets.

Error While Installing Applications in Vista..

I'm really annoyed now with Vista. As I stated earlier in this blog the UAC in Vista keeps a user from possibly making a mistake (basically it assumes your an idiot). However, like all advanced users I went "ah tweaking" for my own personal tastes. I thought that after disabling the UAC in Vista I could get some work done; this turned out to be foolish, naive optimism on my part.
When attempting to install Adobe Acrobat Pro 8; I get an error message stating that my TEMP folder is full or write protected.

"The Temp folder is on a drive that is full or is inaccessible. Free up space on the drive or verify that you have write permission on the Temp folder."

Wha? da F@%#?
So in an attempt to follow the directions, I preceded to change my permissions on my C:\ drive under both user and default Administrator profile. Long story, short and about two hours later nothing worked. Then after a few hours researching the almighty, all knowing, lord and master of all human knowledge past, present and future-- Google. I hit upon the answer.

"However, please note that if UAC is disabled, files and folders are no longer virtualized to per-user locations for non-UAC compliant applications and all local administrators are automatically logged in with a full administrative access token. Because of that, disabling UAC essentially causes Vista to behave like the Windows XP user model."

Please note this little tid bit WAS NOT IN THE MS KNOWLEDGE BASE ON VISTA....@#%$@#$%^#@!!!!!

Thanks Micro$oft, for making it clear on how to fix that problem. Anyway, this is how you fix this problem:

Solution #1 – Enable User Account Control (UAC)

Since the lack of UAC on the system has caused the application's installation parameters to fail, we need to temporarily enable UAC for the installation's sake.

1. In Control Panel click on User Accounts.
2. Click "Turn User Account Control on or off".
3. Check the box to "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer" and then click OK.
4. Restart your computer. ( YES, YOU have to restart your computer just to use an installer!!!!)
5. Now try to install the exe, you should succeed.

Note: If you want to, you can turn off User Account Control after you successfully install Adobe Reader.

Solution #2 – Use compatibility mode to install the application

If you do not wish to temporarily re-enable UAC (or cannot do so because it will require you to reboot the machine), you can configure the installation program to work in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode.

1. After downloading the installation file go to the folder where you've saved the file.
2. Right-click the .exe file and then choose Properties.
3. Click the Compatibility tab.
4. Under Compatibility Mode, check Run this program in compatibility mode for: and choose Windows XP (Service Pack 2) from the drop-down list.
5. Click Apply, then click OK to close the Properties window
6. Now try to install .exe, you should succeed

That's right kiddies, basically you're damned if you do and damned if you don't with Vista style UAC security. That’s all for now.

Annoying Vista Security Issues

Ok for those of you who don't know, Micro$oft has is using the same security perspective as Linux and Unix systems. This is UAC (user access control). For someone who just wants things to work and could care less on how they work. This keeps them from installing something that may be destructive to their computer. However, to someone who is a an experienced user/admin; the UAC is just damned annoying and sometimes frustrating. Having to tell your system a minimum of five times to install this program or run this command is irritating beyond belief. You can cut the UAC off in the security panel of Vista. I've already done this, makes life for me alot easier. For more information on UAC consult microsoft's knowledge base by clicking here .

Taken from Petri.co.il:

Anyway, if required, you can disable UAC by using one of the following methods:

Method #1 - Using MSCONFIG

1. Launch MSCONFIG by from the Run menu.

2. Click on the Tools tab. Scroll down till you find "Disable UAP" (this should probably change to UAC in next Vista beta builds and in the RTM version). Click on that line.

3. Press the Launch button.

4. A CMD window will open. When the command is done, you can close the window.

5. Close MSCONFIG. You need to reboot the computer for changes to apply.

Note that you can re-enable UAC by selecting the "Enable UAP" line and then clicking on the Launch button.

Method #2 - Using Regedit

1. Open Registry Editor.

2. In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

3. Locate the following value (DWORD):

EnableLUA

and give it a value of 0.

Note: As always, before making changes to your registry you should always make sure you have a valid backup. In cases where you're supposed to delete or modify keys or values from the registry it is possible to first export that key or value(s) to a .REG file before performing the changes.

4. Close Registry Editor. You need to reboot the computer for changes to apply.

In order to re-enable UAC just change the above value to 1.

Method #3 - Using Group Policy

This can be done via Local Group Policy or via Active Directory-based GPO, which is much more suited for large networks where one would like to disable UAC for many computers at once.

If using Local Group Policy you'll need to open the Group Policy Editor (Start > Run > gpedit.msc) from your Vista computer.

If using in AD-based GPO, open Group Policy Management Console (Start > Run > gpmc.msc) from a Vista computer that is a member of the domain. In the GPMC window, browse to the required GPO that is linked to the OU or domain where the Vista computers are located, then edit it.

In the Group Policy Editor window, browse to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.

In the right pane scroll to find the User Access Control policies (they're down at the bottom of the window). You need to configure the following policies:

You'll need to reboot your computers.

Method #4 - Using Control Panel

1. Open Control Panel.

2. Under User Account and Family settings click on the "Add or remove user account".

3. Click on one of the user accounts, for example you can use the Guest account.

4. Under the user account click on the "Go to the main User Account page" link.

5. Under "Make changes to your user account" click on the "Change security settings" link.

6. In the "Turn on User Account Control (UAC) to make your computer more secure" click to unselect the "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer". Click on the Ok button.

7. You will be prompted to reboot your computer. Do so when ready.

In order to re-enable UAC just select the above checkbox and reboot.

Vista Gadgets for the side bar

Now like Ubuntu/Linux and Mac; You have little gadgets your can add to your Vista side bar. First, you'll have to launch the side bar. Go to Start>Accessories>side bar. If it isn't running by default, you'll see sidebar on the right of your display. Most of the gadgets are in my opinion are pretty useless much like the ones you find in Linux dists and Mac. Microsoft's angle is offer useful gadgets and allow open development for others.
One you have the sidebar running and can see the default gadgets already running; luckily you're not stuck with these. Right Click on the sidebar (or the plus sign at the top of the bar) select the add gadgets from the menu. A menu will appear showing all the gadgets you have installed. At the bottom of the right of the menu, you'll see a link "get more gadgets online." This will, of coarse, take you to MS's website:
http://vista.gallery.microsoft.com/vista/SideBar.aspx?a=&mkt=en-us

Take a view moments to look them over.

Here are a few of my favorites:

The BOFH excuse of the day:
If you're a fan of the BOFH, then this is the digital version of his rolodex with all the excuses he throws at the computer illiterate that dare bother him at work.


Spell checker:
self explanatory, but very useful in spell checking words without having to use word or google.

Real VNC:
If you have anynetworking experience this can come in handy.

Notes:
Comes loaded by default, great for taking down a phone number of a quick though/reminder.

Multimeter(D):
Neat little gadget that access the taskmanger's log and give a real time reports. Gives both core access and memory percentage and well as Ram used.


Wireless Network:
Gives the name of the current SSID (Wi-fi Network name) your connected to and how strong the signal is both percentage wise and visually.