Are Your Office Printers Secure?

Today’s businesses use a variety of devices to carry out their daily operations. We are not just talking about computers, laptops, and tablets. Printers, copiers, and multifunction printers (MFPs) are essential components to a modern office.

Most businesses focus their security efforts on their computers; however, printers and copiers have hard drives that store information just like that of a computer. Anything that is scanned into a device is saved on the hard drive. With that said, there’s a good chance that sensitive data is being stored within your printers and copiers. For this reason, printer security should be a top priority when dealing with IT security measures.

Let’s take a look at a few tips to help beef up your printer security.

• Password Protection. This may sound like an obvious solution, but this option is often overlooked when it comes to printers. Setting up passwords will make sure that only authorized employees have access to your printing devices.
• User restrictions. Set restrictions that will control who can print certain documents to certain printers. This will keep your employees from printing large amounts of unnecessary documents, such as personal documents unrelated to work.
• Secure your printer’s network firewall. To improve your printer security, this step cannot be dismissed. It will take a professional IT services provider to implement the right security measures, but in doing so, it will ensure that outsiders do not have access to the data stored on your printers and copiers.
• Educate your employees. Employees need to understand the importance of printer security. Employees often leave documents unattended in printer trays. This is one of the easiest ways of breaching the security of a printer. Sensitive data can easily end up in the wrong hands. Educate your employees on the importance of printer security and the importance of immediately picking up your printed documents from printer trays.

Securing your business’s data is more important than ever in today’s world of ongoing breaches and data hacks. Don’t let a lack of printer security be your company’s downfall. Contact us today to learn more about some of the printer security measures available to help your business.