An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Last Thursday, HP CEO Enrique Lores addressed the company’s controversial practice of bricking printers when users load them with third-party ink. talking to CNBC Televisionsaid: “We saw it you can put viruses on the cartridges. Through the cartridge, [the virus can] go to printer [and then] go from the printer to the network.” This scary scenario may help explain HP’s insistence on putting it on printers, facing another lawsuit this month over its Dynamic Security system.
Dynamic Security stops HP printers from working if an ink cartridge without an HP chip or HP circuitry is installed. HP released firmware updates that prevented printers with such ink cartridges from printing, leading to the lawsuit above (PDF), seeking a class action certificate. The lawsuit alleges that HP did not inform printer customers that printer software updates released in late 2022 and early 2023 could result in printer features not working. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and an injunction preventing HP from issuing printer updates that block ink cartridges that do not have the HP chip. […]
Not surprisingly, Lores’ claim comes from HP-backed research. The company’s bug bounty program tasked Bugcrowd researchers with determining whether an ink cartridge could be used as a cyber threat. HP claimed that sophisticated cartridge microcontroller chips used to communicate with the printer could be an entry point for attacks. […] Clearly, HP’s tactic is to encourage HP printer owners to engage with HP ink, which helps the company. provide recurring revenue and compensates for lost money when printers are sold. Lores confirmed in an interview that HP loses money selling printers and makes money through supplies. But HP’s ambitions don’t end there. It envisions a world where all printer customers subscribe to an HP program that offers ink and other printer-related services. “Our long-term goal is subscription print. That’s what we’re really driving,” Lores said.