The EURion Constellation

A security hack hidden in plain sight.

If you have a bank note handy, take close look at it. On many notes in many countries you’ll find a particular pattern of dots, something like this, repeated many times:

o   o
  o

      o
o

On some notes they’re disguised: one on UK bank note they’re musical notes, although the music doesn’t make sense. On others they are zeros mixed in with other digits.

The pattern has a very specific purpose: it’s very quick to automatically detect, and it says “I am a bank note”. Various pieces of hardware and software look for it, and will refuse to copy the image if it’s found.

This application does not support the printing of banknote images.

EURion constellation at Wikipedia

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So far today, 2023-06-16, feedback has been received 106 times. Of these, 97 were likely from bots, and 9 might have been from real people. Thank you, maybe-real people!

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