Most businesses would never connect an unknown laptop to their network and forget about it for seven years.
Printers, however, can sometimes be treated very differently.
A modern office printer or multifunction device may be connected to the company network, allow users to scan to email or cloud services, have its own administrator interface and handle documents containing customer, financial or commercially sensitive information.
That does not mean office printers should be regarded with suspicion. It does mean they deserve the same basic attention as other network-connected equipment.
The National Cyber Security Centre recommends properly controlling the configuration, management access, maintenance and eventual disposal of network devices. Those principles are just as relevant when the network device happens to print and scan documents.
So, how secure is your office printer?
Here are some practical questions worth asking.
1. Who can administer the printer?
Many multifunction printers have a web-based administration interface.
This can provide access to settings covering networking, address books, scanning, authentication and other device functions.
The important question is not simply whether that interface exists. It is who can access it.
Administrative access should be limited to the people who genuinely need it, rather than being treated as another general office login.
The NCSC advises organisations to control privileged credentials and restrict device-management access appropriately.
If nobody in the business knows who manages the printer, what the administrator credentials are for, or when its configuration was last reviewed, that is worth addressing.
2. Is the device being kept up to date?
Printers are often expected to work quietly in the corner for years.
That reliability is useful, but it can also mean nobody thinks about the software running inside them.
Modern multifunction devices use firmware just like many other pieces of network equipment. Manufacturers may release updates to correct faults, add functionality or address security issues.
When reviewing an existing print estate, it is worth establishing:
- which models are still supported;
- what firmware versions they are using;
- who is responsible for updates;
- whether very old equipment still belongs on the network.
Replacing a printer purely because it is old is not always necessary. But keeping unsupported equipment indefinitely without considering the implications is not a particularly good plan either.
3. What happens when somebody prints something confidential?
Not every print-security problem involves sophisticated cyber attacks.
Sometimes the problem is a piece of paper sitting in an output tray.
Payroll information, contracts, customer records, HR documents and commercially sensitive information can all be printed on shared office equipment.
Secure print release tackles that very ordinary problem by holding the job until the user authenticates at the printer. PaperCut describes this as a hold-and-release process where documents are not produced until the user verifies their identity at an authorised device.
Depending on the equipment and software, authentication might use a PIN, access card, username or another supported method.
It is a relatively simple concept:
pressing Print sends the job to a queue; authenticating at the device actually produces the paper.
That means fewer confidential documents sitting unattended waiting for their owner.
4. Do you know what your printers are being used for?
Security and visibility often go together.
In an unmanaged print environment, an organisation may know roughly how many printers it owns without having much idea how they are actually being used.
Print management software can provide information such as:
- print volumes;
- colour and black-and-white usage;
- duplex versus single-sided printing;
- usage by user, department or cost centre;
- heavily used devices;
- trends over time.
Phoenix already supports PaperCut for secure print release, authentication, reporting and print rules across compatible equipment.
The objective does not have to be surveillance of individual staff. For many organisations, the useful part is simply understanding the print environment well enough to manage it properly.
5. What about scanning?
The security conversation should not stop at printing.
A multifunction device may also be used to scan documents to:
- email;
- network folders;
- user accounts;
- document-management systems;
- cloud services.
That makes scanning configuration part of the wider picture.
Old destinations, accounts belonging to former employees, unnecessary address-book entries or poorly understood workflows are all good reasons to periodically review how scanning is configured.
This is particularly relevant where the device handles personal, financial or confidential information.
6. Is the printer exposed to more of the network than it needs?
The NCSC recommends controlling and protecting the management of network devices rather than making administrative access unnecessarily available.
Exactly how that should be implemented is an IT decision and will vary between organisations.
But the practical question is straightforward:
does everybody who can reach the printer need access to everything the printer can do?
A small office may have a very simple network. A larger business, school or multi-site organisation may have separate user groups, guest networks, servers and management systems.
The printer configuration should make sense within that environment rather than simply being plugged in and forgotten.
7. What happens when the machine is replaced?
This is an easy stage to overlook.
Some multifunction devices contain internal storage and configuration information. When network equipment is retired, the NCSC recommends considering stored information, credentials and appropriate wiping or factory-reset procedures before disposal or reuse.
That makes decommissioning part of the security process too.
Before an old device leaves the organisation, somebody should know:
- what information it may contain;
- whether stored destinations or credentials need removing;
- what reset or sanitisation process is appropriate;
- where the machine is going next.
The answer will depend on the device, but simply unplugging it and hoping for the best is not much of a disposal policy.
8. Do you actually need new equipment to improve security?
Not necessarily.
Some security improvements come from configuration or print-management software rather than replacement hardware.
Compatible existing printers may be able to participate in secure print release, reporting or authentication systems. Phoenix’s current print-management approach specifically considers whether existing equipment can continue to be used rather than automatically replacing every device.
For other organisations, ageing equipment may not support the controls they now need.
That is why it makes more sense to start with the requirement rather than the sales brochure.
A sensible printer-security review
You do not need to turn the office printer into a major cybersecurity project.
A useful starting point is simply to establish:
- what equipment you have;
- whether it is still supported;
- who administers it;
- how users authenticate;
- where scanned documents can be sent;
- how confidential print jobs are handled;
- whether usage is visible;
- how devices are managed when they are replaced.
For some businesses, a few configuration changes may be enough.
Others may benefit from secure print release, PaperCut, newer equipment or a wider Managed Print review.
The important thing is that printers and multifunction devices are treated as part of the organisation’s technology environment rather than as isolated boxes that happen to contain paper.
Phoenix Digital Systems South West supports photocopiers, printers, managed print and print-management software for organisations across the South West.
If you are unsure how well your current print environment is controlled, talk to Phoenix about your existing equipment and what you want to improve.