businessinfomag.uk magazine 16 PRINTERS The MFP Revolution Jason Cort, Director of Product Planning and Marketing at Sharp Europe, explains why security matters now more than ever not always cover all their bases – an oversight that can make cyberattacks and the subsequent loss of data and reputational damage a real possibility. Take office printers, for example. These trusty office essentials are not traditionally thought of as a hacker’s Trojan horse. But our experience of working with small and mediumsized enterprises across the UK indicates that they are still underestimated as a probable access point for bad actors. This was reflected in our recent Europe-wide research into the attitudes of almost 6,000 IT managers and decision-makers. We wanted to understand the IT investment priorities and security capabilities of SMEs and found that in the UK almost one in five (16%) businesses has been impacted by a printer security breach. Yet just 3% worry about the security risk of printers and a third (33%) have no IT security measures in place that extend to printers. While this may not sound all that surprising, it’s an alarming omission, because printers have evolved just like other workplace tech to meet the needs of a modern office. Today, multi-functional printers (MFPs) are epicentres of connectivity. MFPs are connected to the business network, individual devices and in some cases even to employees who work from home. In short, this means they are a highly vulnerable and largely overlooked gateway. So how can organisations protect themselves against these threats? As with all things security, it boils down to people, processes and technology. First line of defence An organisation’s employees are its first line of defence. It is therefore important to establish protocols for handling sensitive documents With technology advancing at breakneck speed and the sheer volume of connected devices that now have access to a corporate network, it’s unsurprising that cyber threats are infiltrating more organisations. It’s becoming increasingly challenging for businesses to have complete visibility into who is accessing their network. With this in mind, organisations should view every endpoint and device as a possible point of attack. Despite this, organisations do and ensure employees understand them. This can be as simple as securely disposing of printed materials and not leaving them unattended in the tray. Controlling access to MFPs via user authentication through PINs, smart cards or biometric systems can increase visibility of users on your network. The greater the visibility, the more likely that potential threats can be identified and neutralised. Implementing processes for the secure management and disposal of printed documents is important, but in our increasingly digital age, so too is managing the document lifecycle. This includes information capture through scanning hardcopy documents, monitoring email or creating and saving documents from an application; storage and preservation of physical and digital documents; and of course, enabling documents to be securely shared both internally and externally. MFPs today also offer in-built cyber security giving another layer of protection. For example, at Sharp we recently introduced Bitdefender anti-malware technology. As an absolute minimum, MFPs must be factored into an organisation’s overall IT security posture and considered a vulnerable endpoint. The more advanced and integrated MFPs become, the greater the risk to confidential information. All organisations have a responsibility to protect the data they hold about their customers and employees. And with increasingly stringent regulatory and compliance requirements, such as GDPR – and potentially other requirements on the horizon following the recent change in government – print security can no longer be overlooked. www.sharp.co.uk Jason Cort
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