Computer Experts! What kind of logs can I get?

[Dogg Thang]

I may have an issue that could blow up and I need to do some detective work first. In a person's office in my building, sitting on the printer was the first page of a printout. Lo and behold it was a printout of an email from my personal gmail account, dated 2 days ago. I couldn't see what else was there and didn't want to react then and there because that could potentially be a serious problem.

I didn't print it and don't have the printout. All I could see was that it was mine, from gmail and the date at the bottom of the page.

Anyone know if there is a way I can look at printer logs? I imagine it would have been queued to print from my computer, which can access that printer. Is there any way in hell I can find out what was printed? Or any kind of activity logs so I can see when my computer was accessed during times I wasn't at it?

I should mention my work computer is windows XP.

[djjimbob]

Will look into that....

[Dogg Thang]

Thanks, I really appreciate it. My gut reaction is to grab it and unleash an unholy veangeful fury but if it gets into denials and 'computers do the strangest things' it will just be mucky.

[oblivion_6]

Most printers nowadays have built in memory which stores printed jobs and things, the amount of data held usually depends on the model, getting the info shouldnt be too difficult with some of them its just a case of accessign a menu on the printer.

I would look up the model on tinternet and get a manual m8

[in5ane]

How computer literate are you? Is your printer a large-ish one for the whole office? My first port of call would be typing the IP address into a browser, and seeing if it has a web interface. Out big HP does, and you can see the queue and previous jobs etc.

I don't think logs are the answer here... maybe some social engineering is in order, to see if they are still looking at your email, and manipulate the situation slightly that way.

What was briefly the subject matter in the the email in question? Anything worthy enough printing it out one-time, or do you think it was pretty random and it'll happen again?

[Dogg Thang]

It was covered by another sheet so I only actually saw the top (which was the gmail menu exactly as it appears in the browswer with my mail address on the top left) and the bottom (which had the print date on it). Unfortunately, I don't know what was actually printed. If I could mail myself something traceable somehow, I could see if it happens again.

[VR46]

Not wishing to sound stupid, you sure you didn't print it without realising ? surely if someone was checking up on you or whatever they would have picked up the print-out straight away ?

Oh and never check "remember password" boxes when at work

[Dogg Thang]

Heh, that was the first thing I wondered. I guess it's possible, though I would have got the printer window up and I can't imagine I would have clicked through that without realising it. But the possibility of that is one of the reasons I'd like to see what I can find out first.

Edit: The printer manual doesn't seem to reckon that it can do a report of any printer activity unless it came in as a fax.

[bootmonster]

Is your computer at work not locked dude? Ctrl + Alt + Del Style

[Dogg Thang]

Nope, not locked.

Well, I went and print something out myself just to go back in. And I took the page. The page is actually blank except for all the gmail menu stuff down the left and across the top. It's definitely from my account but this doesn't seem to actually be anything. It's even got the 'loading' where the chat thing is.

Is it possible I hit 'print screen' by mistake and it did exactly that? Would it not ask me before printing it? Although there is no IE stuff on it so it's not just a representation of the screen.

See, this is why I needed to check before my wrath was unleashed.

[in5ane]

That's not what print screen does, that button only takes a snapshot image, not send it to the printer.

I would recommend locking your PC whenever you leave it at work! I'm usually connected as root to most of our servers *and* leave myself logged into gmail, if someone messed around with my PC while I was in the loo, I'd be for it!

[djjimbob]

Just re-read this. Is the printer connected locally to the PC or on a network queue?