PRINTITRESELLER.UK 39 RESEARCH 67 per cent of respondents reported experiencing at least one print-related data breach in the past year, an increase of six percentage points from 2023 Changes to print infrastructure composition are coinciding with greater awareness of print security as breaches and their associated costs rise, according to Quocirca’s Print Security Landscape Report 2024. Almost three-quarters (71 per cent) of the 500 IT decision-makers (ITDMs) from the UK, US, and Europe surveyed said that their organisation remains dependent on print, and 80 per cent said they have changed the composition of their printer fleet in the past two years. 67 per cent of respondents reported experiencing at least one print-related data breach in the past year, an increase of six percentage points from 2023 and the average financial cost per breach has also risen 38 per cent year on year, reaching £1,028,346. Confidence falls Just 16 per cent of IT decision-makers say they are completely confident in the security of their print infrastructure. This continues a three-year trend of confidence decline, from 19 per cent in 2023 and 23 per cent in 2022. SMBs are least confident, just 13 per cent say they have complete confidence in print security. The study also showed differences between confidence in office print environments, where 58 per cent are mostly or completely confident, and home/remote printing, where this figure drops to 47 per cent. Spending expected to rise The lack of confidence may be prompting organisations to commit more budget to the challenge, with 70 per cent expecting spend on print security to increase in the next 12 months. In terms of the print security measures being introduced, there is more evidence that focus has turned to home printing. Providing authorised printers to home workers that adhere to security policies (42 per cent) is the most commonly implemented measure, Focus on print security rises followed by reporting and analytics to monitor home and office print usage of each employee for tracking and audit purposes (41 per cent). Louella Fernandes, CEO, Quocirca, said: “Print infrastructure security has often been regarded as lower priority than other aspects of cybersecurity. However, our latest study indicates growing awareness of the vulnerabilities associated with hybrid and remote printing as breach frequency and costs rise. Concerns about employee-owned home printers now rank second on the IT security breach list, with office printing in third position. Last year, these issues ranked ninth and eighth, respectively.” AI expected to make an impact 34 per cent of IT decision-makers say it is very important that print vendors use machine learning and/or artificial intelligence to identify potential security threats and cyber-attacks. This figure rises to 48 per cent among organisations that see printing as a critical activity, and 41 per cent among MPS users. However, ITDMs also recognise that AI can be a risk as well as an opportunity, with 62 per cent reporting extreme or moderate concern that AI will be used to create further security risks. “Organisations that are highly dependent on print demonstrate their acute awareness of the impact AI could have on it,” Louella said. “There is an important role here for vendors and channel partners to ensure their messages around AI opportunities and risks are robust and reassuring in equal measure.” MPS and fleet standardisation offers benefits MPS and fleet standardisation offers benefits, but these are not being realised. Organisations using managed print services report much greater satisfaction with their print supplier’s security capabilities, with 43 per cent The number of print-related breaches has increased and confidence in print infrastructure security has dropped as organisations switch up their print fleets saying they are very satisfied compared to only 23 per cent of organisations not using MPS. This correlation holds true over confidence in print infrastructure security, with 21 per cent of MPS users saying they are completely confident, compared to only 18 per cent of nonMPS users. Organisations using standardised print fleets are less likely to report one or more print-related breaches (59 per cent) than those operating a multivendor fleet (70 per cent). However, fewer organisations now operate standardised fleets; 73 per cent now say they operate a mixed fleet, up from 69 per cent in 2023. Furthermore, organisations operating a mixed fleet expect to deploy more onpremise print servers in the coming year – 68 per cent state that they will increase the number of print servers, compared with only 34 per cent of those with a standardised fleet. “Alongside a lack of standardisation, we are also seeing organisations reticent about moving to cloud print management, with cited reasons including security concerns, perceived lack of functionality, and cost. These should all be easy for channel partners to overcome, but it seems clear that a complex, multi-vendor, hybrid cloud print environment is the prevailing approach right now, making management more difficult,” Louella concluded. www.quocirca.com Louella Fernandes Print Security Landscape, 2024 July 2024 © Quocirca 2024 1 Print Security Landscape, 2024 Mitigating the print infrastructure as a threat vector Print security trends in the US and Europe July 2024
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