3D printing has the potential to transform the world by simplifying manufacturing, shortening supply and distribution chains, democratizing production, creating and repatriating jobs, and customizing products to users’ specific needs. But 3D printing can also be the proverbial devil’s playground. Like many technologies, 3D printing has a dark side, and criminals are using 3D printers to create new forms of crime.

The Dark Side of 3D Printing

Firearms

Almost everyone has heard about Texas law student Cody Wilson, who made headlines in 2013 by 3D printing a functional plastic gun and posting the blueprints on the Internet.¹ The blueprints for Wilson’s gun were downloaded 100,000 times before the U.S. government forced their removal from the server.²

But, if it had not been Wilson who first 3D printed a gun, it would have been someone else. In fact, the ZigZag plastic gun was 3D printed in Japan shortly after Wilson printed his.³ Because Japan has strict anti-gun laws, the maker of the ZigZag gun was sentenced to two years in jail for 3D printing several guns and posting videos of the process on the Internet.⁴ In 2015, police in Chiloquin, Oregon, made arrests for the illegal possession an AR-15 assault rifle. Its lower receiver—the key to what makes it a weapon—was believed to have been 3D printed.⁵ A gun and 3D printing enthusiast called Derwood built the “Shuty” semi-automatic handgun partly from 3D-printed parts and partly from store-bought metal parts, thereby avoiding the need for a license or registration. The weapon fired at least 800 rounds.⁶ More recently, a “Guy in a Garage,” as he calls himself, 3D printed the “Songbird,” which uses rubber bands for springs and a roofing nail for a firing pin; it can fire multiple .357 rounds.⁷  3D printers are also effective tools for making gun accessories—an unidentified fabricator modified the digital blueprint for a commercial silencer, then 3D printed a custom silencer.⁸

Innovators are pushing the envelope on the types of weapons that can be 3D printed—3D-printed weapons need not be guns in the traditional sense to be dangerous. A plasma railgun was made by an anonymous Imgur (an image-sharing social media platform) user who used a 3D printer and commonly available parts to make a handheld electromagnetic projectile launcher that fires rods made of Teflon/plasma, graphite, aluminum, and copper-coated tungsten at a speed of about 560 mph.⁹

It has always been legal for U.S. citizens to make firearms, so long as they were detectable by airport metal detectors or x-ray machines.¹⁰ Cody Wilson’s gun, however, demonstrated that anyone with a 3D printer can make not just a gun, but an undetectable gun—leading to the inescapable (and frightening) conclusion that terrorists and other dangerous individuals could plausibly make undetectable guns. In August 2016, the TSA found a 3D-printed revolver in carry-on luggage at the Reno-Tahoe Airport (Nevada). The gun appears to have been detected only because it was loaded with live rounds.¹¹

Also, even though U.S. law prohibits the sale of guns to convicted felons, 3D printing provides a method for felons to make or acquire guns without anyone knowing about it.¹² This isn’t only a U.S. problem, though. In a police raid in Manchester, England, police discovered 3D-printed gun components, along with a 3D printer.¹³ In separate raids in Brisbane, Australia, and the country’s nearby Gold Coast, police found 3D-printed gun parts and a fully functioning, loaded 3D-printed gun.¹⁴

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the first US state to outlaw 3D printed guns.¹⁵ Various other local governments have considered banning 3D printed guns, including the territory of Queensland, Australia.¹⁶ California recently passed a law requiring 3D printed weapons makers to apply for an official serial number. California is also trying to pass legislation requiring plastic 3D printed guns to contain at least some metal.¹⁷ New South Wales, Australia, outlawed digital blueprints for 3D printable guns.¹⁸

Gun-printing criminals are still thinking inside the box—although the plastic guns 3D printed to date are not very pretty, they still look like guns. But there is no reason why a 3D-printed firearm might not look like a shoe or a hairbrush or a soda bottle.¹⁹ The same may be true of explosive devices. As 3D-printing industry analyst Alex Chausovsky said, “Think of master bombmakers in the Middle East making new designs that look like everyday products.”²⁰

Keys and Access Cards

3D printers have dark-side applications beyond firearms. In developments surely being followed by the underworld, a German hacker used a 3D printer to reproduce handcuff keys for high-security handcuffs.²¹ Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students have CT-scanned locks, then used the scans to 3D print master keys.²² Skilled lock-pickers Jos Weyers and Christian Holler 3D printed a bump key, which can be used to pick almost any pin tumbler lock.²³ In July 2016, hackers released 3D-printable designs for the master luggage keys used by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.²⁴

In France, a man 3D printed fake facades for cash machines, which clone the data on users’ ATM cards.²⁵ Criminals in Sydney, Australia, used 3D printers to make attachments for bank machines that skim bank card information from unsuspecting ATM users. By using 3D printers, the criminals can make the skimmers look like they are part of the ATM.²⁶

Organized crime is jumping on board with 3D printing, as well. In coordinated raids against gangs in Malaga, Spain, and the Bulgarian cities of Sofia, Burgas, and Silistra, police seized equipment used to 3D print sophisticated skimming equipment, including fake card slots for bank machines.²⁷ A criminal who calls himself “Gripper” makes a skimmer by the same name, which he sells online. Gripper recruits other criminals to join his international network and offers round-the-clock tech support in Moscow, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Gripper boasts:

Bare [sic] in mind we have the power to mass-produce these ATM skimmers with the latest technology… We have all files needed and printing facilities in China. Also, we have files to mass-produce MSRV [magnetic-stripe-reading] electronics.²⁸

The Gripper is a good example of how criminals can exploit the combined powers of the Internet and 3D printing for dark purposes. The portability of 3D printers means that illegal items can be made in constantly relocated stealth factories, while the Internet can be used as the illegal information superhighway.²⁹

Drugs

3D printers also have legal capabilities (or potential capabilities), that could be exploited by criminals. Researchers at Louisiana Tech University and India’s JRobotics Group have been working on 3D printing legal drug-delivery devices and pharmaceuticals, and University of Glasgow (Scotland) chemist Lee Cronin is working on 3D-printed legal prescription drugs.³⁰ It may not be long before 3D printers also will be used to print illegal drugs. In his article “Can You 3D Print Drugs?” Chris Gayomali wrote,

But with all the useful and practical applications of 3D printed drugs comes an obvious dark side. Take, for instance, the potential for amateur organic chemists to engineer their own designer drugs. In Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That’s Changing How the World Gets High, author Mike Power envisions a near future where DIYers (mostly college grads with chemistry degrees) are using highly sophisticated techniques—including 3D printers—to render “controlled substances” an obsolete relic of the past.³¹

This drug-printing capability would be a boon to organized crime, which would be able to print illegal drugs at the point of need, thereby eliminating the capital investment and risks of shipping and storing large quantities of illegal drugs. And, if personal 3D printers are capable of printing a user’s customized prescription at home, the same type of printers can also be used to print illegal drugs. In fact, there is no reason why drug dealers will continue to sell drugs when they can sell the digital blueprints instead, which local dealers or users can use to print their drugs of choice. Of course, conventional drug dealers may also become obsolete relics when free blueprints for illegal drugs become widely available for 3D printing by anyone with the right equipment.

Counterfeiting

Another potential dark use of 3D printing could threaten governments and financial institutions everywhere: 3D-printed currency.³² For example, the U.S. dollar is printed on special linen-like paper with colored threads used to protect against counterfeiting; however, this type of paper may be a good candidate for 3D printing. Paper currency is also printed from plates, which could be 3D printed. Perhaps most important, many countries rely on large denomination coin currency, and 3D printers are perfect tools to print counterfeit coins.

Cash is not the only thing 3D printers can counterfeit. Counterfeiters will be able to make almost anything with 3D printers or sell the blueprints for others to do so. They will not be limited to Rolex watches and YSL handbags—virtually any branded product might be counterfeited through the use of 3D printers, which could print it with or without the brand or print a generic product with a brand name on it. 3D printers could make it much easier for enterprising counterfeiters to enter the game.

Brands are protected by trademarks covering the brand name and, sometimes, the look and feel of the product, such as its shape or color. Brands may also be protected by copyrights and patents; in those situations, brand owners will have tools to fight back against the counterfeiters, if they can find them. This problem will not be fundamentally different from brand counterfeiting today, except that it will be on a much larger scale.

But brand counterfeiting will be a relatively small part of the problem. Counterfeit parts have been a serious problem for car and airplane makers for many years, as well as the U.S. defense supply chain.³³ This problem could grow and become more widespread with 3D printing.

The Really Dark Side

It is impossible to predict how dark the dark side of 3D printing will get, but here are a few examples.

In 2014, the FBI’s Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC) announced its intention to buy a 3D printer to study whether terrorists can use them to make bombs and, if so, when this capability will be a reality. They may find that the answers are “yes” and “soon.” TEDAC’s mission is to study improvised explosive devices made by terrorists.³⁴ The FBI should be credited for thinking ahead and preparing for this modern terror-enabling device.

Currently, various researchers are working to 3D print bacteria and viruses.³⁵ Just as this technology could be used for legitimate scientific purposes, the technology to 3D print bacteria and viruses could easily be adapted by terrorists, with catastrophic results. Germ or biological warfare is nothing new, but what is new is the possibility of 3D printing germs from blueprints available on the Internet or from other sources.

In their book Fabricated, Columbia University Professor Hod Lipson and technology analyst Melba Kurman describe a possible black-market trade in 3D-printed human organs “a few decades from now.” They predict high demand from black-market organ makers for bioprinters cast off by hospitals and legitimate bioprinting companies, along with injuries to patients caused by faulty organ blueprints and shady organ fabricators who cut corners and fail to work in sterile environments. ³⁶

In their article entitled “Toward the Printed World: Additive Manufacturing and Implications for National Security,” subject matter experts Connor McNulty, Neyla Arnas, and Thomas Campbell say that 3D printing might make nuclear proliferation harder to detect because countries and political groups who are not members of the “atomic club” could use 3D printers to make parts for nuclear weapons.³⁷ In fact, rogue nations or groups might use 3D printers to make products they can’t buy because of international sanctions and embargoes. As modern and future warfare expert Peter Singer observed, “3D printing could turn sanctions—which have been a crucial part of foreign policy for a generation or more—into an antiquated notion.”³⁸

The Disarming Corruptor

Designed by a university researcher, the Disarming Corruptor disguises 3D-printable blueprints, allowing them to slip through filters meant to block them from design repositories. The researcher became frustrated when an online design repository automatically blocked the upload of his artistic rendition of Mickey Mouse, and again when he learned that another online repository blocked blueprints for 3D-printable weapons. His solution was a software tool that disguises the blueprint, making it unrecognizable by algorithms designed to block content that violates intellectual property (IP) rights or is otherwise illegal or objectionable. Once disguised, any design can be uploaded to any 3D-printing blueprint repository. The Disarming Corruptor also generates a password that can be shared independently of the repository, so that people who download the design can remove the masking and print the object.³⁹

The Disarming Corruptor—and other tools like it—may render impotent any efforts to prevent the transmission of 3D-printable designs that infringe third-party IP rights or violate laws that prohibit printing certain types of objects, like guns. As Cody Wilson commented, the Disarming Corruptor “explodes the idea that there will be certain shapes we can guard against.”⁴⁰ Tools like the Disarming Corruptor are a 3D-printing criminal’s dream, enabling the sharing of designs for any and all products, legal or not.

Don’t Blame the Technology

Some illegal 3D-printed products—or their blueprints—will be bought, sold, or traded in physical or virtual black markets. Organized crime will find creative ways to profit from 3D printing, such as trafficking in 3D-printed drugs and human organs. Terrorists will adopt the technology to further their misguided missions. It is impossible to predict how deeply such users will delve into the dark side of 3D printing.  As with many technologies, 3D printing can be misused, but not because the technology is inherently flawed. People are flawed. Although the size of the problem could be huge, this is only because the technology is so revolutionary and disruptive. Governments, law enforcement, homeland security, and the military need to assess the risks from the dark side of 3D printing and plan accordingly.

 Notes:

¹ Andy Greenberg, “This is the World’s First Entirely 3D-Printed Gun,” Forbes, May 3, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/03/this-is-the-worlds-first-entirely-3d-printed-gun-photos/#8213cd816c18.

² Andy Greenberg, “3D Printed Gun’s Blueprints Downloaded 100,000 Times in Two Days (with Some Help from Kim Dotcom),” Forbes, May 8, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/08/3D printed-guns-blueprints-downloaded-100000-times-in-two-days-with-some-help-from-kim-dotcom.

³ David Sher, “Them Crazy (Japanese) Cowboys Have Gone and Done It Again,” 3D Printing Industry News, February 19, 2014, http://3dprintingindustry.com/news/crazy-japanese-cowboys-gone-done-23836.

⁴ Michael Molitch-Hou, “Japanese 3D Printed Gun Maker Sentenced to Two Years,” 3D Printing Industry News, October 20, 2014, http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/10/20/japanese-3D printed-gun-maker-sentenced-two-years.

⁵ Michael Molitch-Hou, “AR-15 with 3D Printed Lower Receiver Seized in Oregon,” 3D Printing Industry News, June 29, 2015, https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/ar-15-with-3d-printed-lower-receiver-seized-in-oregon-52234.

⁶ Scott Grunewald; “The Shuty MP-1 is the Latest 3D Printed Working Semi-Automatic Handgun,” 3DPrint.com, February 4, 2016; https://3dprint.com/118279/shuty-mp-1-semi-automatic.

⁷ Hanna Watkin; “3D Printing Gun ‘Songbird’ Uses Nails and Office Supplies,” All3DP, September 30, 2016, https://all3dp.com/songbird-new-3d-printed-gun.

⁸ Davide Sher, “3D Printed Silencer Showcases Potential of Personalized Gun Accessories,”3DPrinting Industry News, April 10. 2015, http://3dprintingindustry.com/news/3d-printed-silencer-shows-every-metal-3d-printing-service-potential-weapons-manufacturer-46394.

⁹ Zack Epstein, “3D Printing Used To Make First Real Handheld Railgun, Which Fires Plasma Projectiles at 560 mph,” Yahoo! Tech, October 19, 2015, https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/3d-printing-used-first-real-handheld-railgun-fires-134325053.html.

¹⁰ Section 922(p)(1) of Title 18 of the United States Code (2006) makes it illegal to make or possess any gun that is undetectable by an airport metal detector or that is not visible to an airport x-ray machine; Nora Engstrom, “3D Printing and Product Liability: Identifying the Obstacles,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 162, no. 36, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2347757.

¹¹ Clare Scott, “TSA Discovers 3D Printed Gun in Carry-On Luggage at Reno Airport,” 3DPrint.com, August 9, 2015, https://3dprint.com/145323/3d-printed-gun-reno-airport.

¹² Michael Molitch-Hou, “AR-15 with 3D Printed Lower Receiver Seized in Oregon,” 3D Printing Industry News, June 29, 2015, https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/ar-15-with-3d-printed-lower-receiver-seized-in-oregon-52234.

¹³ Martin Evans, “‘3D Printed Gun’ Discovered by Police,” Telegraph, October 25, 2013, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10403432/3D printed-gun-discovered-by-police.html.

¹⁴ Michael Molitch-Hou, “Aussie Police Raid Home Stocked with Cannabis, Rifle, and 3D Printed Weaponry,” 3D Printing Industry News, February 10, 2015, http://3dprintingindustry.com/news/aussie-police-raid-home-stocked-cannabis-rifle-3d-printed-weaponry-42077; Bridget Butler Millsaps, “Australia’s Gold Coast: Loaded 3D Printed Gun Found in Raid of Sophisticated Meth Lab,” 3DPrint.com, December 10, 2015, https://3dprint.com/110370/gold-coast-3d-printed-gun-raid.

¹⁵ Alyssa Parkinson, “1911 3D Printed Guns Will Sell to Lucky 100,” Solid Concepts Blog, December 19, 2013, https://blog.solidconcepts.com/industry-highlights/1911-3d-printed-guns-will-sell-lucky-100.

¹⁶ David Sher, “3D Printed Guns Take First Victim: Internet Freedom in Australia,” 3D Printing Industry News, May 26, 2014, https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/3d-printed-guns-take-first-victim-internet-freedom-australia-27686; Brian Krassenstein, “California Bill, Making 3D Printing a Gun Without DOJ Approval Illegal, Heads to Govenor’s Desk,” August 31, 2014, 3DPrint.com, https://3dprint.com/13505/california-bill-3d-print-gun-sb808.

¹⁷ Katie Armstrong, “California Passes New 3D Printed Gun Laws,” 3DPrinting Industry News, July 27, 2016, http://3dprintingindustry.com/news/california-passes-new-3d-printed-gun-laws-90177 .

¹⁸ Hanna Watkin; “Legal Status of 3D Printing Guns in Australia and America,” All3DP, July 28, 2016, https://all3dp.com/different-countries-controlling-3d-printed-guns.

¹⁹ Lipson and Kurman, Fabricated, 220.

²⁰ “3D Printing Could Revolutionize War and Foreign Policy,” Space Daily, January 5, 2015, http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/How_3D_printing_could_revolutionise_war_and_foreign_policy_999.html.

²¹ “Watch Out Police! 3D Printed Handcuffs Keys Have Arrived,” 3D Printing Industry News, July 19, 2012, http://3dprintingindustry.com/2012/07/19/watch-out-police-3D printed-handcuffs-keys-have-arrived.

²² Neil Gershenfeld, “How to Make Almost Anything: The Digital Fabrication Revoluation,” Foreign Affairs 91, no. 6 (November/December 2012): 53, http://cba.mit.edu/docs/papers/12.09.FA.pdf.

²³ Michael Molitch-Hou, “3D Printed Skeleton Key Software to Open Any Pin Tumbler Lock,” 3D Printing Industry News, August 28, 2014, https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/3d-printed-skeleton-key-software-open-pin-tumbler-lock-32115.

²⁴ Clare Scott, “TSA-Approved Master Luggage Keys Hacked and 3D Printed Once Again,” 3DPrint.com, July 27, 2016, https://3dprint.com/143860/tsa-master-keys-hacked-again.

²⁵ “34-Year-Old French Man 3D Printed Fake Fronts for Cashpoints to Steal Thousands,” 3ders.org, August 23, 2014, http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140823-34-year-old-french-man-3d-printed-fake-fronts-for-cashpoints-to-steal-thousands.html.

²⁶ Ricardo Bilton, “Bad Guys Use 3D-Printed Bank Card Skimmers to Steal $100K,” Venture Beat VB, August 18, 2013, http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/18/bad-guys-use-3D printed-credit-card-skimmers-to-steal-100k.

²⁷ “3D Printer Confiscated in Organized Crime Raid,” Engineering.com, October 6, 2014, http://www.engineering.com/3DPrinting/3DPrintingArticles/ArticleID/8642/3D-Printer-Confiscated-in-Organized-Crime-Raid.aspx.

²⁸ Jelmer Luimstra, “Criminals Use 3D Printers to Mass-Produce Skimming Devices,” 3D Printing.com, March 24, 2014, http://3dprinting.com/news/criminals-use-3d-printers-mass-produce-skimming-devices.

²⁹ Lipson and Kurman, Fabricated, 220.

³⁰ Michael Molitch-Hou, “Researchers Develop Method for 3D Printing Chemotherapeutic Medicines on Desktop 3D Printer,” 3D Printing Industry News, August 22, 2014, https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/researchers-develop-method-3d-printing-chemotherapeutic-medicines-desktop-3d-printer-31812; Sebastian Pop, “3D Printed Pills, the Next Step in Ingestible Medicine,” Softpedia, August 18, 2014, http://news.softpedia.com/news/3D printed-Pills-The-Next-Step-in-Medicine-Ingestible-Medicine-455397.shtml; Chris Gayomali, “Can You 3D Print Drugs?” The Week, June 26, 2013, http://theweek.com/article/index/246091/can-you-3d-print-drugs; Briar Thompson, “Reaching into the White Powder: A Policy Brief on 3D Printing and Pacific Security,” Islands Society, May 17, 2014, 6, http://islandssociety.org/2014/05/17/reaching-into-the-white-powder-a-policy-brief-on-3d-printing-and-pacific-security-briar-thompson.

³¹ Gayomali, “Can You 3D Print Drugs?”

³² Thompson, “Reaching into the White Powder,” 6.

³³ Government Accountability Office (GAO),  Defense Supplier Base: DOD Should Leverage Ongoing Initiatives in Developing Its Program to Mitigate Risk of Counterfeit Parts, April 29, 2010.

³⁴ Scott Grunewald, “The FBI Wants to Use a Stratasys Objet24 to Study the 3D Printed Bombs of the Future,” 3D Printing Industry News, June 18, 2014, https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/3d-printed-bombs-fbi-stratasys-objet24-28438.

³⁵ Stephanie Pappas, “3D-Printed Bacteria May Unlock Disease Secrets,” LiveScience, October 7, 2013, http://www.livescience.com/40219-3D printed-bacteria.html; Jodi Connell, Eric Ritschdorff, Marvin Whiteley, and Jason Shear, “3D Printing of Microscopic Bacterial Communities,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 46 (May 23, 2013).

³⁶ Lipson and Kurman, Fabricated, 3.

³⁷ McNulty, Arnas, and Campbell, “Toward the Printed World,” 3.

³⁸ “3D Printing Could Revolutionize War and Foreign Policy,” Space Daily, January 5, 2015, http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/How_3D_printing_could_revolutionise_war_and_foreign_policy_999.html.

³⁹ Kyle Maxey, “Hiding Contraband in Encrypted 3D Models,” Engineering.com, November 7, 2013, http://www.engineering.com/3DPrinting/3DPrintingArticles/ArticleID/6599/Hiding-Contraband-in-Encrypted-3D-Models.aspx.

⁴⁰ Ibid.