Print Security: Protect Your Company’s Devices, Documents and Data

Originally published on August 29, 2017

Printers are often an afterthought when the subject of security arises. When, in reality, they’re central to how an organization operates. Sending a print job containing sensitive information begins with the end user, but the in-between channels are where that sensitive information is subject to be viewed (intentionally or unintentionally). We can always store passwords on digital documents, encrypt folders, and install VPNs to limit external access to our organization’s internal networks. But print security remains a challenge for three important reasons:

1. Printing is physical.

Digital documents can be locked away. We can restrict who’s able to access them and monitor when they do. Secure printing is another story. All too often, printed documents are left exposed for anyone to see—not just on someone’s desk, but right there in the printer’s output tray! Let the office gossip begin!

Furthermore, companies adopting a full-on remote workforce are witnessing a whole slew of problems with print security. 

Here’s a short scenario for you: Let’s say, Steve, a remote employee, is trying to print a document for someone in HR residing at the company headquarters. This document gets delivered to the correct printer; however, the HR specialist left the office briefly. Steve’s document is now in the hands of anyone and everyone without his authorization. Now everyone can see that he got a pay raise and a promotion before it becomes public, leading to an HR disaster. 

Situations like these are becoming more commonplace, leaving employees (or customers) exposed in a workplace that should be a safe haven for them.

2. Vulnerabilities when print jobs queue in the print spooler.

Recent vulnerabilities like Print Nightmare have wreaked havoc by potentially exposing company data. This vulnerability made it possible for attackers to access operating systems and run remote code with system privileges. Even now, PrintNightmare is still causing companies to second guess their printing architecture. 

Companies utilizing print servers to execute print jobs are at a high risk of being attacked. This is especially true for companies utilizing multiple print servers since they have to be constantly updated, patched, and secured. Every time a print job goes to a print server, it’s at risk of being exposed to hackers fighting to gain access to your network. This makes your ability to control who sees your confidential information minimal, especially without embracing a serverless printing solution. For this reason, your print management solution must align with your company’s zero-trust security strategy to limit exposure to confidential documents.

The pandemic took a toll on companies worldwide and left a lot of people anticipating the death of the printer. For those who believed that was the outcome–think again. According to a poll by Quocirca in January 2022, despite the digitization of workflow during the pandemic, 44% of companies anticipate an increase in office print volumes, signaling an uptick in print security spending by 70% of organizations in the next 12 months. 

It might be time to hop on the bandwagon and welcome print security (and the printer) with open arms.

3. Security in printing is only as strong as our end users.

Although we’ve all been told about the importance of creating a unique and virtually impenetrable password, it seems we still haven’t received the memo. The most popular passwords of 2022 are “password”, “qwerty”, and for the outside-the-box thinkers: “123456.” It’s easy to claim that these passwords stem from complete laziness; however, I would argue that no one wants to type in a 20-character password every time you need permission to perform a basic duty at work. 

The same principle applies to secure printing. If you try to increase security in printing by making it a complex, six-phase procedure for end users, you’re more likely to discourage them from actually using it. End users should feel empowered when executing a print job, not overburdened. This is why secure printing solutions have to be convenient enough for users to prefer them over ordinary insecure methods.

Why Secure Release Printing?

Secure Release Printing from PrinterLogic takes all of these issues into account. It can’t make sensitive documents invisible to everyone except their intended recipients, but it can keep documents in the hands of those who printed them. All the while, you can relax knowing the roots of company chaos (i.e., print spooler and print server) are nonexistent.

Secure Release Printing is divided into two straightforward steps: the initiation of the print job and the release of that job at the printer. When a user with, say, a classified document clicks “Print,” the job is held in the user’s workstation. Once the user is physically at the printer, they can release the print job using one of the four methods:

  • A badge or card reader: If your organization already has a badge system, PrinterLogic’s Secure Release Printing can integrate with that system to release print jobs by authorized users via their associated badge. The reader might be built into the network printer itself or connected externally to the printer and the network.
  • Badge+PIN & User ID+PIN: Very effective for employees working in a high-security environment. This multi-factor authentication (MFA) feature provides an extra layer of security to keep confidential files out of unwanted hands. 
  • The Control Panel Application (CPA): PrinterLogic SaaS, our cloud-based serverless printing infrastructure, offers an embedded app for all major printer brands. This app allows users to log in, identify their print job, and release it for printing. 
  • Any browser: Using PrinterLogic’s web-based app, authorized users can release print jobs from any device that is capable of running a browser including mobile devices (iOS and Android). 

Keeping your information private has never been more seamless. Instead of your jobs being held on a shared print server, they are held securely on the user’s workstation giving the user full control over the outcome of the print job through user authentication. 

Top Remote Office Printing Issues—and Their Solutions

Originally published on May 19, 2016

Network technology has taken colossal strides since the advent of the telegraph and is heralded for its potential to break down physical barriers and overcome geographic distances. But as most IT veterans will tell you, physical barriers and geographic distance still pose several challenges to distributed enterprise environments. Additionally, the surge of remote workers following the COVID-19 pandemic has posed further complexities for enterprises migrating toward this employment lifestyle. 

Extremely Slow Print Speeds

Remote office printing primarily suffers from issues related to speed. This is a matter of basic network infrastructure. Let’s say that an end user in a remote office wants to print a document. When the end user clicks “Print,”  they assume that the document is sent directly to the remote office printer that is likely situated not more than a couple of yards from where they’re sitting.

Although this case is ideal, it isn’t quite that simple. The print job sent by the end user is relayed to many locations from their workstation via the wide-area network (WAN) and eventually processed at a central print server. The data is then relayed back across the WAN to the remote office printer. Depending on the number of print jobs deployed by other end users, this process could take upwards of ten to fifteen minutes. That often seems like an eternity to employees Plus, it decreases their overall productivity. 

Yet, speed can remain a problem even with a remote office print server in place. Although they might be located onsite, these print servers act as bottlenecks because they aren’t always able to function efficiently under heavy loads. Examples of this include three workers printing 100-page documents simultaneously. These print jobs are rendered and queued systematically, then held in the spooler before being sent to the remote office printer for printing. And that’s the most ideal situation. In reality, remote office printers may experience storage driver errors or compatibility issues, leading to constant frustration and headaches. 

Security Risk Vulnerability

The vulnerabilities associated with giving the same access permissions and full network access to all employees could be detrimental to an enterprise from a cost and security standpoint. Before 2020, companies traditionally followed the “trust but verify” method; however, this compromised companies’ security and gave potential internal actors access to company data and files through unauthorized or compromised accounts. 

In the summer of 2021, the absence of a zero-trust security framework at many enterprises exposed a remote code execution vulnerability, paving the way for malicious attacks on a vulnerable system. This vulnerability, known as PrintNightmare, is still haunting many companies utilizing print servers, causing them to take extra precautions, such as disabling service on domain controllers, limiting traffic by disabling the print server role on workstations, and restricting access to print servers in general.  This nightmare caused enterprises to finally wake up and gravitate toward a serverless printing infrastructure that embraces a zero-trust framework, greatly reducing security complexity and operational expenses.

Print Security Stats

  • 68% of organizations have experienced data losses due to unsecured printing in the past 12 months.
  • 26% of organizations feel confident that their print infrastructure will be secure when they fully reopen their offices.
  • $775,000 is the average cost per data breach. 

Via Quocirca 2022

Overall Management Issues

Management is another issue that affects both regional print servers and remote office print servers. Deploying the right printers to the right users using a set of easy-to-define criteria is close to impossible because print servers generally rely on group policy objects (GPOs) and scripts to carry out deployments. 

Regarding driver management, it’s difficult to keep up with which drivers need to remain at certain versions for compatibility reasons. Print servers don’t even offer an easy way to remotely manage print queues and purge the stuck jobs that can temporarily bring remote office printing to an abrupt halt. This adds to the IT helpdesk’s to-do list along with having to solve Doug’s password predicaments and Michelle’s “blue screen of death”; the IT department just can’t catch a break. 

It’s difficult to establish effective cost management strategies while employing a print server as the prime source of your printing needs. Lack of control and continuous oversight on end-user print jobs puts company dollars right into the shredder. A lot of the cost comes from black ink, which has earned the title of “liquid gold” and is the most used ink color in the workplace. Users might change their settings to print in color even when it is unnecessary or print numerous copies of the same document because they couldn’t find out which printer the print job was dispersed to. These small acts tend to go unnoticed and cause a lot of financial headaches.

Solutions

PrinterLogic is the universal solution to all the issues that plague remote office printing and support remote working environments:

  • Increased print speeds: PrinterLogic creates direct IP connections between remote workstations and remote office printers, virtually eliminating print-related WAN traffic and the need for print jobs to travel across long network chains. 
  • Serverless printing infrastructure: By eliminating the need for remote office print servers, PrinterLogic offers companies the ability to keep print jobs local and stamp out the single point of failure. You’re welcome, IT professionals. 
  • Off-Network Printing: Designed to cater to adopters of Zero Trust and remote work, PrinterLogic’s Off-Network Printing helps companies maintain airtight, Zero Trust security while allowing workers to print regardless of what network they are on. 

It’s time to say good riddance to long wait times, constant IT help desk calls, and the uncertainty of off-network printing. When exploring ways to save time, go serverless, and make use of Secure Off-Network Printing, there’s only one solution. It’s PrinterLogic.