The Cost of Security Risks in Corporate Printing

Corporate printing can pose any number of security risks if it’s not managed correctly.

These risks include:

• Unauthorized access to administration settings: GPOs and rights management can be hard to dial in, which might lead admins to loosen access to upper-level management settings. Unfortunately, that’s like leaving your keys in the door for the sake of convenience.

• Limited network visibility and control: Protecting data isn’t just about restricting access to files or settings. Without unified oversight, it’s tough for IT to keep tabs on print activity. That makes it harder for them to identify weak points or emerging threats in the print environment.

• Printer hacking via the Internet/network: It’s not unusual for printers to be deployed with open ports and their factory settings unchanged—even in corporate printing scenarios. That’s how one white-hat hacker compromised 150,000 printers with a simple script in 2017.

• Confidential information being left on printer trays: Around 14% of printed documents go unclaimed. When those documents contain sensitive information, it doesn’t take a tech mastermind to get a hold of them. They can be picked up by anyone who walks past.

When no secure print strategy is in place, one or more of these vulnerabilities can be exploited. The potential effects are threefold:

1. Legal issues: Depending on what kind of information is exposed, individuals and third parties can claim injury. That opens up the possibility of an expensive—and public—court battle.

2. Regulatory fines: Many industries are subject to regulations on data protection or employee and customer privacy. Healthcare and protected health information (PHI) is one prominent example. Failure to comply with those regulations can lead to hefty fines.

3. Loss of consumer confidence: Data breaches are also breaches of customer and partner trust. Companies face serious public backlash, boycotts and a lasting damage to their reputation if they allow sensitive info to leak.

On average, the aggregate cost of each corporate printing data breach is estimated to be $400,000 per organization. IBM Security’s Cost of a Data Breach Report for 2019 puts that figure closer to $4 million.

PrinterLogic’s serverless printing infrastructure enables your organization to eliminate print servers, which reduces the attack surface of your corporate printing environment. What’s more, PrinterLogic makes it easy for organizations to implement secure release printing and other features to protect print-related data.

Here’s how PrinterLogic addresses each of the risks cited above:

• Tighter control, more flexibility: Along with eliminating print servers, PrinterLogic eliminates the need for GPOs and finicky rights management. That means you can grant printer installation privileges to the helpdesk and non-admin IT staff without compromising security.

• Centralized management: PrinterLogic’s web-based admin console allows you to oversee and control the entire print environment from a single pane of glass. That gives you at-a-glance visibility over printer settings and print jobs—even in distributed organizations.

• Print auditing: In conjunction with its centralized management, PrinterLogic’s advanced reporting lets you proactively monitor the print environment for suspicious print jobs and rogue copy, scan and print activity.

• Secure release printing: Any secure print strategy should include this feature. It holds print jobs on the workstation they originated from until users authenticate at a printer using a release mechanism like a PrinterLogic Control Panel Application or our Print Release App for iOS and Android.

Its combined ability to eliminate print servers while hardening print security has made PrinterLogic a top pick among many managed print services providers.

The Dublin, Ireland-based Independent Photocopier Services (IPS) chose PrinterLogic for those very reasons. Now they can offer their corporate printing customers secure print functionality and more efficient print management with a single solution. Read the case study here.