Hewlett Packard is dousing a report that cyber attackers could break into LaserJet printers over the Internet and make them overheat enough to catch fire. "There has been sensational and inaccurate reporting regarding a potential security vulnerability with some HP LaserJet printers," the California-based company said in a memo available online on November 30.
HP was working on a software upgrade to patch the vulnerability. Word that hackers could set HP printers ablaze swept across the Internet like wildfire after researchers at Columbia University were quoted as saying they found a way for cyberattackers to manipulate ink-drying components.