![425874135_c52ff0085d[1]](http://www.the-digital-reader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/425874135_c52ff0085d1-187x250.jpg)
Gizmodo is reporting today that there are some 86 thousand HP printers which can be accessed from anywhere in the world by anyone who knows the URL.
This is a really funny story in that it shows just how many people didn’t think to use adequate security (including some CS depts at universities) when they enabled the web access options for their printers.
But it’s really not as funny as it first appears. I took a close look at the Google search results which show the list of accessible printers. Click through to the second page and suddenly the list will end after 13 links. So far as I can tell that figure of 86,700 accessible printers is bogus. It’s caused by some type of bug in the search result counter.
Aren’t you glad when I double check my sources? I am.
image by tawalker
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or one of the retailers on
“In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 13 already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.”
That bumps it up to 73. On this scale I’m not sure that matters.
That goes double when you consider that the extra 60 are probably duplicates or at the very least located on the same websites (and thus same organization) as the first 13.
Really, you should know better than to ever trust Google search results.
There are several hundred webcams too. But the site set up to see them is either getting hammered or my crap PC can’t handle it. At least two of the webcams had been secured by the time I tried to view them.