Know why Hack-experts find <br>office printers easy to crack in</br>

Why is it easy for hackers to commit cyber security crimes especially in the office networks and breach confidential business data involving printers! A prepared data states that 56 percent of organizations exclude printers from their security policies. This is probably because nobody ever imagines that office printers could be vulnerable to threat. Looks like what organizations comfortably left out was after all quite susceptible to data thieves. Even the inefficient hackers could fetch information with ease. Here are some ways the danger of print security could lead to mayhem in an organization: A defenseless network could be a bigger problem than you think! Several machines hosted on a network have a high chance to build a new entry point to the whole network despite the firewall. That specific access point could be very convenient for hackers who will only harm once they make it to the network. A complete hijack of your machines doesn’t sound good, does it? Once unprotected printers are accessible by the hackers, they exercise every possible method to bring the system to its knees. Your printer could become the master of its own mind, start printing random stuff, sending out overseas faxes and automatically altering its settings. Printers are infamously targeted by denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. The worst news is data could be easily available to hackers For a hacker, there’s no greater joy than an unencrypted print data. The data reflects as decipherable text if it is put out to a printer unencrypted. To gain access to this data, all a hacker needs to do is use a standard PRN reader. There are ample printer pirates out there! You will come across quite a few scavengers hovering around the printers who very interestedly look through the leftover printouts in the document tray. Thus, feeding on confidential information unintentionally left behind by others. This kind of an incident that results in an information drip definitely makes an organization accountable for regulatory conformity failure. Cell phones actually complicate matters Providing network authentication and safe access to printers become increasingly difficult with computing devices on a network growing to include mobile devices as well. It is absolutely necessary to secure a mobile solution, which deals with user authorization and secure data communication. The more devices we host on a connected network, we engender more possibilities and cases for hacking.

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All this overwhelming information about data hack via printers can simply be avoided by taking a few steps to get a sound security policy for printers. Step 1 Ensure your computing devices disable idle ports and protocols on the printer while employing only encrypted communication protocols. Step 2 Hire a system that wipes out the printer’s hard drive data as part of getting rid of the device from circulation. Step 3 Maintain preferably two or three form of user authentication or at least one. Step 4 In the case of high volume of confidential information or compliance requirements, opt for the execution of pull printing. Step 5 Be sure the printer firmware is up to date and load only genuine firmware. Step 6 Manage & examine devices to comply with security policies using a large number of management tools. Step 7 Every little detail between desktop and mobile devices needs to be encrypted to ensure the print-related data is totally secured from hackers. To conclude, the key to maintaining high levels of security for businesses, professionals, and customers is ‘awareness and NOT blindly trusting people or organizations with vital data’.

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