Tips to Secure Your Paper Trail at Your Printer
May 12, 2022
You take great strides to ensure your business is secure. You use individual passwords at each employee’s workstation, which are required to access shared files. Your servers are encrypted and you’ve spoken at length with your IT provider about protecting sensitive company information. Then, you send that data to your printer.
According to the Global Print Security Report, 60% of businesses lose their data through printer security breaches.
Print infrastructure is vulnerable to all the threats associated with IoT devices, but also to risks linked to hard copy output. The number of print-related of breaches reported by the organizations we surveyed is concerning and the lack of security maturity shows that businesses can and should do more.
– Louella Fernandes, Quocirca Research Director
Most printers and MFPs capture and save images of your documents, making them potential security targets if left unsecured. All of your business documents, from client contracts to proprietary data, are at risk if you fail to secure your company’s printing and scanning devices.
Consider implementing the following tips to secure your business documents.
Beef up Your Armor
Check to ensure that your devices aren’t using a public Internet connection. Make sure they are on your private network behind a firewall or router, so that only you and your users have access to them. Check with your IT provider to ensure you are protected.
Reset Default Passwords
Network printers can be accessed remotely with a simple password. One easy way to secure your printer is to change your device’s default password regularly so that unauthorized individuals can’t access sensitive data. You know the drill; be sure to choose a password that is at least eight characters in length with a unique combination of letters, numbers and special characters.
Secure Outputs
Forgetting to pick up printouts provides others the opportunity to access sensitive information intentionally or accidentally. Many networked printers include security features that require users to type in a code at the machine before the job will be released. This reduces the chances of printouts being left in the tray for anyone to grab.
Switch to MPS
Managed Print Services (MPS) shift the management and security of your printing and scanning devices to a trusted managed services partner. With MPS, you can rest assured that all of your devices are secured at all times and that any latent information will be wiped clean when your leases expire or you decide to upgrade your printing equipment. MPS offers the added benefits of cost and time savings, since your staff will no longer have to worry about securing and maintaining your printing equipment.
Contact Doceo!
The various lines of printers, copiers and scanners that we offer our customers feature an array of safety features to keep your sensitive company documents safe and secure.
Contact us today to learn more about securing your printing devices.