Print Security Tips
Security is at the top in any organization that handles customer data and confidential information. There are a few main standards that provide a set of controls for security management like ISO 27001 and PCI-DSS. But, there is hardly any relevance towards the printer as a form of security threat.
Printers these days have hard disks for caching and do contain all information that is to be processed for printing. It is equally important to tighten the printer along with other devices like servers, firewalls, routers etc.
Louella Fernandes of IT-Director.com fame has listed three tips to keep printers (MFP) secure. On a high end, it all comes down to securing the following areas in printers:
1. Protecting the printer: We have discussed on this blog regarding the threat of unclaimed print outs left in the printers. The unclaimed prints could get into wrong hands and hence compromise on confidentiality. Proximity cards and other forms of authentication are absolutely necessary to solve the problem of compromising information by not claiming print-outs.
Printer thefts could lead to loss of data as most printers these days have hard disks which usually contain residual data. Thefts can be protected by locking printers, hard drives or even by using removable hard drives. Other forms of data protection in printers could be encrypting data and implementing disk over-writing feature.
2. Securing the network: What’s the point of securing the end device while not giving importance to the medium? Most of the print networks are on unencrypted medium and could be an open end for hackers. Hence, the network needs to be secured by encrypting print jobs through(not necessarily) secure socket layer (SSL). IPSec is another way of securing print jobs.
3. Managing Print Jobs: It is absolutely necessary for the management to know what kind of print jobs are going through their network and printers and also to keep a handle on budget. There are plenty of print management tools in the market to track, manage and direct print jobs. HP’s WebJet Admin is a popular tool used in most enterprises today. Other new companies are coming up with management tools with new features like vulnerability tracking and patching and we will definitely see a new tomorrow when print management tools rule the roost.
About the author:
Abhinav has been blogging about printing and related technologies on CreativeCloud for several years. He is also a project manager for a large technology company.
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