How to Enhance the Security of Your Printers

Of all your technology in the office, your printers may not be at the top of your list of security concerns. This could be a costly mistake; an unprotected printer could easily serve as an access point to someone with malicious motives. To help fix this, Macro Systems is dedicating this week’s tip to enhancing the security of your printing solutions.

Comprehending the Threats to Your Printer

There are a surprising number of ways that an unsecured printer can be compromised. Once something is printed, essentially anyone could walk on by and retrieve the paper. Print jobs could also be routed to other printers or manipulated, again breaking the chain of custody of the produced documents and potentially dispersing fraudulent data.

Data stored on the printer itself can also be harvested, and cyber criminals have been known to use printers to infiltrate or directly attack a network system. Printing over Wi-Fi introduces similar security problems as well. Nonetheless, printers still play a critical role in most modern offices and other businesses … So how can these threats be neutralized?

By following some simple best practices, you may find that these security challenges aren’t quite so challenging to address.

Best Practices for Printer Protection

If you want to make sure that your own printing infrastructure is secure, you need to follow a few best practices:

• Keep your printers updated: Software updates are commonly released to help resolve potential security problems that may be within your technology solutions. In order to take advantage of these improvements, you have to actively apply these updates to the solutions you rely on.
• Implement access controls: Just as is necessary with anything that is connected to your network, your printing infrastructure needs to require some validation before someone can use it. Requiring access credentials that meet security recommendations is a good starting point.
• Require MFA: To further secure your printing infrastructure, you should also supplement your access controls with multi-factor authentication requirements.
• Disable unused services: The more services that you have active on your network (including those on your printing devices), the more access points there are for an attacker to take advantage of.

Macro Systems can help you enhance your cybersecurity on every level, including protections for specific pieces of infrastructure like your printers. To learn more about the solutions you need to maintain comprehensive cybersecurity standards, reach out to us today at 703-359-9211.