Many IT teams overlook the need for security when it comes to their organisation’s printers. Despite the fact that these are part of the network and often linked to an external company whose security you have no control over.

Even IT managers who don’t make this mistake, may not be sure the best way to go about securing their printers, so here are some reasons why you should be tackling the problem:

• 53% of IT managers know their printers are vulnerable to cyber crime (source: cioinsight.com)
• 64% believe they are infected with malware (source: cioinsight.com)

Here are some ways to tackle the security risk your printer represents:

• It is likely that your printer has a wide variety of different protocols enabled to allow it to slot into just about any network. However you wont need all of these so once installed you can switch off the unused ones as each port represents a possible weakness.
• Set an admin password to protect your settings and to prevent remote access changes.
• Disable file sharing on the printer to stop people having access to the files on the printer’s hard drive as they shouldn’t need access to them unless they are an administrator.
• Similarly only allow admins to access software and firmware updates for the printer.
• Check things periodically to make sure prints are going to the correct place and that confidential items aren’t being redirected.

In general because these devices are increasingly sophisticated and almost always networked, you should employ the same levels of security to them as you do your entire IT network. Where confidential documents are concerned, care must be taken to ensure they are routed correctly and cannot be intercepted and copied to other locations either internally or externally.

As security experts, IGC Technical Solutions offer a range of network support options for small business, helping you concentrate on your business rather than your IT network. Security issues are difficult to deal with once an attack has happened but with the right planning and setup, can be avoided altogether with the correct installation. Once something is installed it is often forgotten about until something goes wrong.

Please give us a call and we can talk you through our support options.