According to Symantec, “not only has the sheer volume of threats increased, but the threat landscape has become more diverse, with attackers working harder to discover new avenues of attack and cover their tracks while doing so.” (2018 Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec)

Unfortunately, cyber criminals are always finding new ways to attack companies of all sizes, from ransomware attacks to ‘pretexting’, a social engineering scam where attackers send emails that appear to come from an executive or co-worker in the company.

Malicious software and malware attacks still also remain a threat online.

Based on the above methods cyber criminals use to attack businesses, it might be easy to think that printing processes largely remain unaffected.

Sadly, this isn’t the case. While not all of the cyber crime mentioned affects printing and document processes, there is still a lot of risk involved with printing, scanning and copying processes, and unfortunately, a huge part of it comes down to user error and mistakes.

You can read more about the most common risks of printing, scanning and copying here.

How to keep printing and documents cyber secure

To start with, you can review your password policy. If employees are using weak passwords that don’t hold up or meet security requirements, they are increasing the ability for a cyber criminal to access sensitive data by cracking a weak password.

In many ways, password practices come down to culture, habit and better education and enforcing strong password policies can help.

In terms of human error when it comes to printing, for example, leaving documents on the printer, sharing sensitive information with people outside of the business, printing, scanning and copying sensitive data etc, it’s often software that comes to the rescue.

By having built-in security features, multifunction devices can help keep printers secure from both internal and external threats. Xerox’s standard on-board security includes McAfee Whitelisting, Cisco TrustSec, Encryption, Image Over-write and card/pin based printing.

All of these features help to keep printing processes secure, but there is always more that can be done.

Implementing more advanced print security features will help to stop user error and mistakes and will also help to stop employees printing sensitive data, potentially for malicious use.

It’s even possible to automate the detection of sensitive information being printed or scanned in order to redact, block, stamp or alert.

Beyond upgrading your printing security to reduce risk from human error and cyber attacks, one way to help keep printing and document processes cyber secure is by tracking printer usage.

Tracking printer usage

With printers that log user data, you can see who’s using them, and protect your data by encrypting documents sent to, sent from, or stored on your printers.

Tracking user activity and usage can also provide an audit trail and in the event that something does happen, you can track who accessed the printer and what the activity was.

Cyber crime doesn’t look to be slowing down, but with the right protections in place, you can keep your printing and document processes secure.