Why do HP printers block cartridges from competitors?

Lores said this is to protect the company's intellectual property (IP), saying, "We build a lot of IP into the ink of the printer, into the printer itself… And what we do is when we identify cartridges that infringe on our IP, we will stop the printer from working." This means HP can block the use of cheaper cartridges, including rolling out firmware updates that prevent printers from working.

HP printer users are dependent on the company's "expensive" ink.

THE VERGE SCREENSHOT

HP introduced Dynamic Security in 2016 to protect its IP and improve its financial health. Enrique Lores wouldn’t provide figures, but he confirmed that HP was losing money on printer sales. The company makes money on consumables, including ink cartridges, but higher prices are driving consumers to alternative ink solutions.

In his statement, Mr. Lores also gave surprising information to justify blocking third-party cartridges: “We found that an adversary can integrate a virus into the cartridge. Through the cartridge, the virus enters the printer, then enters the network.” He said this was based on a study (conducted by HP) that found that after a bug search to determine whether the cartridge could be a cyber threat, and more specifically, the reprogrammable chip integrated into the cartridge. It is used to communicate with the printer and can act as an attack vector.

All of this is theoretically possible, but no known exploits have been found. That's likely because it would take a hacker with a lot of resources to exploit it. HP sees it as a potential threat, so they want to stop it before it gets exploited.

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