Today, many companies, who are well aware of the importance of data security, have developed an information technology (IT) infrastructure to protect sensitive information from possible hacker attacks. However, when printing documents, security is often overlooked. The computer servers provide a storage service with controlled access with respect to privacy and data control. Computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones are password protected. Individual files can also hold an additional layer of security. But what happens when information, especially the most sensitive, is sent to a printer? It happens that, if the device in question does not have an adequate level of security on a par with the entire IT infrastructure, documents that should remain confidential can be intercepted. Which poses quite a few problems. Fortunately, there are effective solutions that prevent this information from falling into the wrong hands. Before illustrating them, however, let’s start with good practices.
1. Keep track of what you print. You need to know who is printing, what and when. It therefore becomes useful to use a print management tool that reveals the usage profile in detail. Also to better monitor the use and costs of the printer fleet. Through the generation of specific reports, it is then possible to quickly identify the data that have been printed or processed, in order to verify the existence of a possible violation.
2. Only allow authorized users to print. How many times have we sent a document to print, then forgetting to go and collect it because at the same time engaged in another activity? An forgetfulness on the agenda that can also cost you dearly. This is precisely the case in which confidential information could become public (think of a bank). It is therefore essential to have a pin or an NFC card to unlock the documents and limit the risk of wiretapping. An important and useful procedure for those corporate and institutional departments (human resources, accounting, administration), used to managing a considerable amount of confidential information.
3. Block access to printers. In companies where confidential information is handled on a daily basis, it is important to implement an even higher level of print security. On some select printer models Brother for example, you can block or restrict access to the print device settings until an authorized user accesses them. You can also set a time limit for document collection by having the printer itself delete data after that limit. Thanks to Active Directory authentication or through LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) authentication, authorized users, by entering their username and network password, can unlock their device to use all its functions normally.
4. More security when scanning documents. Security shouldn’t just be limited to printing documents but scanning as well. The printing devices Brother support Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to protect scanned data during network transmission. This feature ensures that scanned documents are 100% protected. Company personnel can then send the scanned data to their own or third party SFTP servers as they normally would, but with an additional layer of encryption.
Pull Printing technology can be of great help in protecting the security of data and information. Thanks to this technology – included in the range Brother – the documents to be printed are arranged in a virtual queue to be printed only when the user is ready to withdraw the print and near the device. In the printing and scanning processes, the most common failures are in fact leaving confidential documents unattended (35%), not collecting their own prints (34%) and withdrawing confidential documents from others (27%). Pull Printing ensures that users authenticate to the printer and demonstrate that they have adequate permissions. In addition to security, Pull Printing allows you to reduce the consumption of paper, ink and toner (sustainable solution) because unauthorized printing documents remain digital. Files that are not collected after a certain period of time are removed from the printer memory for the benefit of network security. Finally, print and scan monitoring prevents misuse in printing non-business documents.