Why data security is crucial in Technical Document Printing?

February 14, 2022

“In the cyberattacks identified by Microsoft, those devices – including the office printer – became point of ingress from which the actor established a presence on the network and continued looking for further access. Once the actor had successfully established access to the network, a simple network scan to look for other insecure devices allowed them to discover and move across the Network”

Source: Forbes study on Cyberattack Warning As Dangerous Issues Found On Popular Office Printers

Cybersecurity risks are always in the headlines. with above new research exposing major vulnerabilities with office printers from the world’s leading manufacturers. It turns out that the networked printers in businesses could represent a much greater danger than paper jams and expansive printer and toner/ink prices. What that means, in short, is that those innocuous devices could be the easiest entry point for cyber attackers into small businesses, enterprises and government departments.

In essence, attackers don’t need to try too hard to develop sophisticated TTPs when there are vulnerable IoT devices that, in many cases, are not even on the radar of corporate technology security teams.

Many organizations don’t discuss and ask for data security while purchasing printers for their office assuming printers have to just print/copy/scan, data security can’t be responsibility of printer. Customers might not ask for it as they do not know data security is possible at printer and assume their current solution is ok. Organizations suffers the consequences when new designs leak out too early or when intellectual property gets in the wrong hands, even within the company.

People within organization made responsible for data security can be Heads of Design Departments /CAD managers, Security officials from IT, Department Heads of development / industrial design (R&D from manufacturers), etc.

Latest printers are designed to protect your confidential, and sensitive information within your office and network. Protect against unauthorized access to print data, printed information and the customer’s own IT infrastructure via printers capable of Hack prevention and restricted printer access.

New PlotWave Series has SMARTshield security solution, to secure your large format printing, copying And scanning workflow, and safeguard your confidential designs & intellectual property now and in the future. These printers are Hack prevention enabled to prevent unwanted access to the printer from outside the organisation.

Other than preventing unwanted access to the printer from outside the organisation, it is equally important to have restricted printer access within the organisation. When a printing job is sent to a printer, in most of cases it immediately prints out and remains sitting in the tray until someone picks it up. This poses a severe information security risk.  In the very least, employees may have to reprint missing jobs, which further drives up costs and recreates risk.

One quick solution is “locked printer.”  With locked printer, documents won’t print before being released by the user that has been authorized to print. The designated user can only authorize the print job from the physical device.

Documents under locked print do not sit in the tray where they can be picked up by an undesignated user. Documents stored in the printer’s memory cache are encrypted. This is crucial in that it protects data even if the printer’s physical hard drive is stolen.