The General Data Protection Regulations are changing and Kyocera reveals that print and document management are the “blind spot”.
The OEM stated that the public sector businesses are unaware and unprepared for the up and coming EU regulations on data protection and according to the research done by Kyocera of the 161 public sector businesses surveyed by iGov (in collaboration with Kyocera) 59 percent were unaware of the implications while only 73 percent said they were prepared.
Businesses need to prepare now as the fines are €20 million ($22.8 million) or four percent of annual turnover, whichever is greater, are huge. Print security came under scrutiny in the survey and it was found that a fifth of participants felt that printer security was vulnerable as management of multiple solutions was lacking and 44 percent did not have any printing security in place.
Eddie Ginja, Head of Innovation at KYOCERA Document Solutions UK Ltd, said: “Although cyber security is one of the biggest challenges facing the public sector today, printers and multifunctional devices have traditionally been left at the bottom of the queue when it comes to data security strategies. Thankfully, only eight percent of organisations had experienced a print-related security breach to date, but this research confirms our fears that print and document management is a security weak spot when it comes to data protection, which is deeply concerning given that GDPR is imminent.”
It was also noted that even since the hacking of more than 150,000 printers in February this year only 76 percent have a policy relating to the use of USB hard drives and 29 percent had no idea about how long documents should be kept for within the current law.
Ginja said: “Without adequate protection, cyber attackers can easily gain access to multifunctional devices (MFDs) and the data they store, potentially then gaining access to unencrypted data available across entire IT networks, bypassing company firewalls in the process. Printing and data go hand-in-hand – just think about how much sensitive information is printed or scanned at your organisation every day. As the new fines draw closer, now is a great time to analyse your print security.”