Endpoint Security: 6 Areas Cyber Attacked Printers Can Affect Your Business

Traditionally printers were a technology that most organizations considered to be digitally passive.

However, enterprise printers have evolved into extremely powerful, networked devices making them an easy target for security breaches and threats that shouldn’t be ignored by IT decision makers.

Nearly 3 in 5 organizations have security practices in place for printers – yet this number is well below that for other endpoints.

Like many endpoints, printers have the same vulnerabilities and offer access into company financials and private data, and are often unsecured – so why aren’t IT personnel taking notice of the threat?

In the past year, 40% of Canadian organizations had experienced an IT security breach, and 56% of those breaches were print related.

With the majority of security breaches happening as a result of printers, it’s clear that printer security is an afterthought for organizations.

Interested in finding out more about how you can prevent your printers from being cyber attacked? Check out this free whitepaper on achieving a secure print infrastructure!

The Impact of Printer Breaches

Unsecured printers can present a sizeable potential security hole and are becoming the go to for hackers.

The vulnerability of printers can have profound effects on a business – organizations could be leaving their entire network of connected devices open to attack.

Multifunction printers are capable of much more damage however.

They can store printed data electronically, store print jobs that make it possible to view sensitive material or business information, and hackers can access the broader company network through the printer and steal information such as Social Insurance numbers, financial information, memos, and private documents.

This information can not only harm a company’s reputation and give potential competitors access to information, but can also severely impact individual employees.

In addition to compromised data security, other impacts include:

• Increased help desk calls
• Reduced productivity and efficiency
• Increased system downtime
• Increased time on support calls
• Increased enforcement of end user policies

Get Started Securing Your Printers

It is evident that companies need to address printer security and stop undermining printers as potential threats.

Some of today’s modern enterprise level printers include easy to use built-in security that combats these printer threats.

These include:

• Automatic attack detection, protection and healing
• Tracking use to prevent unauthorized users
• HID/RFID readers allowing users to quickly authenticate and print securely
• Secure encrypted printing

However, if you are looking for a complete end-to-end print security platform, you should consider enterprise printing solutions that offer a wide range of security features to combat all threats, as well as offer a wide range of other features to improve business processes and workflow.