According to a recent study conducted by Brother and published in a white paper, 75% of IT professionals say that security has risen to the top of their agenda in recent years. But did you know that your networked devices could be a potential threat to your company’s overall security, just as much as the rest of your IT infrastructure?
It’s all very well locking your office door at night and keeping your valuables in the safe, but if you haven’t made sure that your networked devices are protected then you might just have a giant open back door, rendering your business vulnerable to all sorts of potential security threats.
But how do you make sure that your networked devices are nicely safe and secure? Luckily for you, North West Digital are here to help out on that front.
More Advances, More Threats
As we all know, technology is advancing at a tremendous pace these days, but with every technological advance we make there is a corresponding increase in security threats. Take internet security as an example; it seems that the minute we close one loophole with one firewall improvement, the hackers have already found a way around it. It’s a constant game of cat and mouse.
And now that more and more of our lives – both business and personal – are lived in the digital world, it makes us increasingly vulnerable to any kind of cybercrime. Just think about your own company; do you keep client records on your computer database? Are your financial accounts on there? Maybe you’ve got your passwords in a handy folder on your desktop, to help you remember them? However computerised, or otherwise, your business is, it’s highly unlikely that, in this day and age, your business will be completely impervious to these kinds of security threats.
The Hidden Threat
However, possibly the most worrying thing about cybercrime, is the extent to which companies are either not sufficiently protected from the risks, or are completely unaware of the danger altogether.
Admittedly, most of us are aware of the need to have a robust antivirus package on our laptops or networked computers, but did you also know that, even with a decent computer security system in place, your networked printers and scanners can create a weak link in the chain that will threaten your entire network?
In particular, networked printers and scanners could potentially do the following;
- Enable confidential documents to be seen by the wrong people, by being left in printer trays
- Accidentally leak confidential printed and scanned information that has been stored in the recent memory
- Allow network intrusions thanks to their lowed security protection
- Allow unauthorised users to gain physical access to any unguarded devices
In short, if you’re not very careful with your networked devices, then they could provide a gateway into the rest of your computer systems, regardless of how well protected they may be in turn. Particularly if you work in an industry that handles sensitive data on a daily basis, then any cybercrime resulting from a weakness in your security systems could just be the type of catastrophic event that has very serious ramifications.
What Can You Do About It?
But luckily, it’s not all doom and gloom and a few simple measures could prevent disaster from striking your IT infrastructure and knocking you down.
-
Secure Your Printer’s Location
The most obvious first step to take is to secure your printed documents at the source. If you’re likely to be printing sensitive or confidential data, make sure it’s being sent to a device that’s located in a secure place, not accessible by unauthorised personnel.
Especially if your data is of a particularly sensitive nature, make sure the printer is located in a room with a lockable door, which requires specific authorisation to access; this way, you will not only be able to ensure access to the printer is restricted, but you will also have a record of who has used the printer and when.
-
Secure Your Personnel
Further to that, people are the biggest security risk to your devices, so make sure only the people who are authorised to see your data are able to do so.
Ensuring the room can only be accessed via a key or a keycode is just one way, but enhanced security can also be achieved with additional security authorisation features – such as requiring approved staff to present a personalised pass or key card to access the printer and print appropriate documents. Moreover, certain IT printing packages – such as Papercut – allow specific personnel to be assigned to specific jobs, ensuring yet another layer of accountability in your document management system.
-
Secure Your Documents
How many times have you seen documents lying around in printer trays, which no one has bothered to pick up? It happens all the time in busy offices, but if those documents contain sensitive information then the risk to your business is more than just a case of wasted paper.
Adapting a managed print solution – such as Papercut – could drastically reduce the number of documents that are printed unintentionally, or printed and forgotten about. Moreover, increased training for staff, or nominating a person who’s responsible for checking the printer at set times throughout the day, are both great ways of encouraging your staff to become more responsible about their printing habits, and will thus reduce the chances of your sensitive documents being left lying around for anyone to find.
-
Secure Your Printer’s Memory
It’s important to bear in mind that most networked devices will now store their recent jobs in their memory, so don’t forget to periodically wipe your device’s memory. Your service provider or the printer manufacturer will be able to advise you on how to do this, if you can’t find the instructions in your user manual!
Also, don’t forget that, if you’re recycling or replacing your old device in favour of a new one, remember to wipe it’s memory before it is taken off the premises by the engineers.
-
Secure Your Data
Sensitive data is vulnerable as it travels around the networks, be they internal or external, so you need to make sure your documents are secure whilst they’re whizzing around the ether. The best way to do this is to encrypt your documents at all stages of the process, by both encrypting the documents when they’re in transit and using encrypted storage for when they’re waiting to be printed too. This will mean that, if your network does happen to be hacked, there’s less chance your documents will be easily translated.
-
Get Expert Help
Most printer manufacturers now provide enhanced security for your networked devices, to make sure your business is as protected as possible. After all, it’s in their best interest to make sure your business is running as profitably as possible, so much of the additional security is provided as standard.
If you’d like to know more, this webinar on print security from HP gives a really useful overview on what you need to do and how you need to do it.
Get In Touch
And of course, if you’d like to know more about protecting your networked devices and your business, then please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help you out. We’ve worked with businesses of all shapes and sizes and with all device manufacturers, so we know a thing or two about ensuring your business is as secure as it possibly can be.
You can contact us in any of the usual ways; by emailing us at info@, by giving us a bell on 0161 477 8950, or by completing the contact form on the website and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.