{"id":137351,"date":"2019-05-16T09:57:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T09:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/?p=137351"},"modified":"2023-01-26T22:29:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T22:29:00","slug":"network-printer-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/network-printer-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Network Printer Security: 4 Ways to Stay Protected"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most overlooked areas of <a href=\"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/cybersecurity-business-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">business security<\/a> is network printer security. We pay attention to firewalls, antivirus, and antimalware. We encrypt file servers and require passwords to access databases and individual files. We even encrypt our workstations.<\/p>\n<p>But printers\u2026 not so much.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Is network printer security really a thing?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Companies have been maintaining tight control of physically printed documents for as long as there have been printers. That\u2019s important and necessary, but many companies don\u2019t realize that they may be wide open to attack because of poor network printer security measures.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re like I was at first, you might think there\u2019s not a lot that could go wrong with printing other than paper jams or forgetting how to replace ink cartridges, but network printers are just as vulnerable to malware and hackers as PCs.<\/p>\n<p>According to InfoTrends, there are almost 30 million printers and multifunction devices in offices and homes throughout the U.S. and Western Europe that are connected to a network. <strong>If malware is installed on a printer, hackers can do all sorts of nasty things, including:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-listid=\"1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\">Get access to confidential or sensitive information<\/li>\n<li data-listid=\"1\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\">Launch denial-of-service (DoS) attacks<\/li>\n<li data-listid=\"1\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\">Access saved copies of documents<\/li>\n<li data-listid=\"1\" data-aria-posinset=\"4\" data-aria-level=\"1\">Send unauthorized print jobs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to HP, in a survey of 300 IT and security pros, just 16 percent of respondents think that printers are at high risk for a security breach. Yet there are hundreds of millions of business printers in the world and less than 2 percent of them are secure. Yikes!<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not too late to implement\u00a0network printer security measures. <strong>Here are four things you can do to protect your printers and your business from attacks.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>1. Assess what printers are networked<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Do all printers need to be connected to your network or only certain ones? Having an unsecured printer connected to your network is like an unlocked back door to your business. One thing you can do, at least until you get proper security measures in place, is unplug from your network. If there is no physical or wireless connection, hackers can\u2019t compromise your network.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>2. Pay attention to the basics<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Since most networked printers can be accessed remotely with a password, <strong>the simplest thing you can do to secure a printer is to change the default password when you set it up.<\/strong> If you haven\u2019t done this \u2013 stop reading now, get up, and GO CHANGE IT! And throw in a few unexpected characters to make it more difficult to break. You may thank me later.<\/p>\n<p>You also want to keep the printer firmware updated. Printer manufacturers send out firmware updates as new threats are uncovered so check for them regularly and then USE \u2018EM! If you\u2019re as easily distracted as I am (Look! Squirrel!), set up a recurring reminder on your calendar. It\u2019s not difficult to do and it\u2019s another layer of protection.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>3. Use encryption<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019re printing any sensitive information \u2013 employee files, confidential company information, or customer invoices \u2013 don\u2019t trust that sort of data to an unencrypted network!<\/p>\n<p>When you send a print job over a secured network using encryption, your information will be converted into undecipherable code to hackers. It just makes sense to <strong>use encryption so the print job can\u2019t be intercepted, or at least interpreted, on its way to the printer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many multifunction printers, copiers, and scanners also have hard drives that store the documents, faxes, images, etc. that are going to be or have been printed. Make sure those drives are also encrypted so that if you are attacked that information is not compromised either.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When you retire a printer, make sure you wipe the drives.<\/strong> In 2010, Affinity Health Plan, a managed care plan company in New York State, returned multiple photocopiers to their leasing agent without wiping the information on the drives. Confidential data for almost 350,000 individuals were found on the drives. That HIPAA violation cost them 1.2 million dollars. Ouch!<\/p>\n<h2><strong>4. Purchase secure printers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Okay, I don\u2019t mean to be a shill for any particular printer company, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hp.com\/us-en\/security\/solutions.html#section=printSolutions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HP printer security<\/a>\u00a0is a standout among secure printing solutions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HP network printers offer unique technologies designed to thwart attackers\u2019 efforts and then fix themselves.<\/strong> These features automatically trigger a reboot any time they detect an attack or other anomalies.<\/p>\n<p>Every time the printer is started, HP Sure Start checks the integrity of the BIOS code and defaults to a safe copy if it is compromised. It then checks the firmware to be sure it is a known code digitally signed by HP. If not, it reboots. Then it checks the security settings and fixes them if needed. Finally, it monitors the printing process in real-time and reboots if it detects an attack. Pretty cool stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Other printer manufacturers have network printer security features as well. Take advantage of them and keep yourself secure!<\/p>\n<h4><strong><em>Who knew that just a lowly printer could leave a company vulnerable to malicious attacks? Now you do!<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n<h3>Need to beef up printer security?<\/h3>\n<p>I hope I didn\u2019t scare you too much, but network printer security is no joke! CCB Services can help you replace or secure your printers to make sure hackers can\u2019t get in. Before you print\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/contact-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contact CCB<\/a> to protect your business from network printer vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most overlooked areas of business security is network printer security. We pay attention to firewalls, antivirus, and antimalware. We encrypt file servers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":160951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccbtechnology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}