Hackers Flood University Printers With Anti-Semitic Messages

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REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL

Hackers have forced printers in several German Universities to print anti-Semitic posters and messages.

Multiple German universities including the University of Hamburg had their printers hacked on Wednesday. The individuals who apparently perpetrated the attack found gaps in the security of the printers, which are often connected to wireless networks, and used the access to force the printers to spew out message of hate and anti-Semitic propaganda.

The University of Tübingen described the attack as happening, “as if by magic.” The university spokesman Karl Rijkhoek told media that the attack happened on all the printers at the same time and that the anti-Semitic messages printed over 190 times. At other universities various numbers of printers were effected by the hackers.

In Hamburg 12 printers were affected and in Nuremburg ten printers were hacked, though they only printed hate filled page each.

Rijkhoek said that he believed the attacks were coordinated and were serious. “This was not a prank, but a targeted action,” he said. The hack came from outside of the local network according to technicians from the university. They say that the content of the pamphlets was in a broken form of German leading some to speculate that the hack may not have even been from Germans at all.

This speculation was confirmed by a spokesman from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg who blamed the attacks on a “configuration error” and said that the printer action had been caused via the internet from a foreign IP address.

According to police the printers were connected to the internet but were not password protected making them easy targets. A private citizen in the town of Reutlingen had their printer hacked as well by the same  people and police noted that they also had not protected their printer with a password.

The affair reminiscent of a similar attack by Andrew A.E. Auernheimer, known online as ‘Weev‘.

The so-called hacker was behind an action that involved thousands of university printers across America printing a flyer that said, “WHITE MAN are you sick and tired of THE JEWS destroying your country through mass immigration and degeneracy?” which matches the description of the flyers printed in Germany.

Claiming that the attack was to point out the security vulnerabilities of the universities and to highlight free speech issues, ‘Weev’ still may face prosecution in the United States. In Germany anti-Semitic speech is unequivocally illegal, and if caught the perpetrator could face a real possibility of time in prison.

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