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Your office printer may have silently left your company's data at risk for decades.
When you think about business cybersecurity threats, you may immediately look to your office computers, servers, networks or even employees’ smartphones if you have a BYOD policy. You may be surprised to learn that your office printer has presented security risks for decades. As multifunction printers evolved, they further expanded the potential attack vectors.
Your office printer may be vulnerable to cybersecurity intrusions, but it receives much less security attention and protection than other devices accessing the network. We’ll explore printer security vulnerabilities and how businesses can adhere to printer security best practices to protect their sensitive information.
Despite receiving little security attention, printers can potentially contain significant amounts of sensitive data. When not secured, printer security risks can play a role in costly cyberattacks.
“Since the inception of LaserJet printers in the late 1980s, the printers have faced security issues,” said Ashish Malpani, former director of embedded solutions product marketing at HID Global, a manufacturer of secure identity solutions. “However, with the advent of networking, the networked printers along with embedded web servers and vulnerabilities in PostScript processing, printer security got attention in the late 1990s.”
Any connected device can potentially pose a network security threat. Printers are no exception, and their presence on a network can open the company to serious security problems.
“Given their storage capabilities, printers also contain enormous (and often sensitive) data, which includes every document that’s been printed or sent via that printer,” said Jason Rader, vice president and chief security officer at Insight. Additionally, because printers are connected to company emails, hackers access the information and email it to themselves.
Printers are especially risky because many IT staffers aren’t taking the necessary steps to protect them or the data accessed through them. One of the most critical moves – changing the default password to a strong password – is too often never taken. Ignoring that simple step allows almost anyone access to the printer.
Malpani cautioned that modern multifunction printers face an even broader range of threats and vulnerabilities.
Protecting your printer from threats isn’t much different from protecting any other device on the network. Securing your printer will improve your business’s overall cybersecurity. Here are some of the best practices to follow:
Jeremy Bender contributed to the writing and reporting in this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.