This has been around for a lot longer then the article (from 2009) suggests. High end publishing printers had a lock-down mechanism built in as early as the late 90's when you attempted to print US currency.
As mentioned in this comment thread, there is a general description of the security features on newmoney.gov - while I was working on the original version of newmoney.gov for the release of the new $20 bill, we were given high DPI scans of the new bill and were only allowed to make low DPI, specific crops - all while in a "war room" that did not have internet access nor were we allowed to bring in any cameras or cellphones.
Some interesting little facts I was told while working with the BEP: most counterfeits are actually done by other countries with proper currency printing machines. Small time counterfeiting is generally bleached out $1 bills printed over with $5 images to retain the same cotton-paper ratio used so that it feels the same.
As mentioned in this comment thread, there is a general description of the security features on newmoney.gov - while I was working on the original version of newmoney.gov for the release of the new $20 bill, we were given high DPI scans of the new bill and were only allowed to make low DPI, specific crops - all while in a "war room" that did not have internet access nor were we allowed to bring in any cameras or cellphones.
Some interesting little facts I was told while working with the BEP: most counterfeits are actually done by other countries with proper currency printing machines. Small time counterfeiting is generally bleached out $1 bills printed over with $5 images to retain the same cotton-paper ratio used so that it feels the same.