An article discusses the importance of a smart printing services strategy for businesses.
Tektonikamag published an article discussing how network printers can be a security threat to a business and warns “With security threats on the rise—and getting absolutely disastrous—businesses of all sizes need printing services strategies to protect their organizations and minimize risk.”
The Ponemon Institute conducted a survey of over 2,000 global IT security practitioners, showing that 60 percent admitted that a “data breach involving a network-connected printer has likely occurred, and most respondents predict a data breach resulting from insecure network-connected printers in the next 12 months.”
Talking to Tektonikmag, Jason O’Keefe, HP Print Security Advisor, said: “Most companies don’t think they need security for their print infrastructures, so print is very low on their priority list for security. We present our framework, which has up to 200 controls that we evaluate for vulnerabilities across the print infrastructure. All of a sudden, eyes widen, and the tune changes completely. The initial scepticism becomes disbelief and shock, which then opens the floor for a very frank and lively discussion.”
Michael Howard, HP Chief Security Advisor finds that most printer related security vulnerabilities come from ageing technology; failure to implement security controls properly; heterogeneous vendor environments; and unmanaged print environments.
The article concludes that businesses can remediate their printer related vulnerabilities regularly updating the firmware, reducing administration across the print infrastructure, upgrading print databases from express to enterprise editions, implementing processes and documentation to keep security consistent and measurable, providing security awareness training to print administrators.