Canon warns printer users to manually wipe Wi-Fi settings before discarding

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Printer manufacturer Canon is warning that sensitive Wi-Fi settings don’t automatically get wiped during resets, so customers should manually delete them before selling, discarding, or getting them repaired to prevent the settings from falling into the wrong hands.

“Sensitive information on the Wi-Fi connection settings stored in the memories of inkjet printers (home and office/large format) may not be deleted by the usual initialization process,” company officials wrote in an advisory on Monday. They went on to say that manual wiping should occur “when your printer may be in the hand of any third party, such as when repairing, lending or disposing the printer.”

Like many printers these days, those from Canon connect to networks over Wi-Fi. To do this, users must provide the SSID name, the password preventing unauthorized access to the network, and in some cases, additional information such as Wi-Fi network type, the local network IP address, the MAC address, and network profile.